
Qass. 
Book 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



\J 




THE 



0^ "I'- 



(•'^/^'^ 



IVES AND GRAVES 



G. a WEAYEE, D.J). 



AUTHOR OF 



"The Heart of the World," 

"Aims and Aids for Young Men and Women," 

" Hopes and Helps for the Young," 

"Ways of Life," Etc. 




Elder Publishing Company. 



1884. 






Copyright, 

1883. 

By a. p. T. Elder. 



Right of ti-anslation reserved. 



i§|§Si^^i§§§iiipi 




PREFACE. 



A century of presidential lives is now inwoven with a 
century of American history. We are now in the centennial 
decade of our American national existence. We have just 
celebrated the hu.ndredth anniversary of the battles of Lex- 
ington and Concord, of Bunker Hill and Bennington, the 
Declaration of Independence, the evacuation of Boston, the 
surrender of Cornwallis, the departure of the British from 
New York, and last, Washington's surrender of his commis- 
sion. Very soon will come the centennial of the adoption 
of the constitution, which will close the centennial period of 
that great series of events, which gave us and the world the 
American republic. This book is designed to be a celebra- 
tion of these and related events, all in one, and a rehearsal 
of the leading events of our country's first century. 

It is thought that a double interest will attend the history 
by having it strung on the string of the presidents' lives, 
and a double value as well, by making the most of the book 
biographical as well as historical. 

We are drifting away from the great fountains of our 
national stream, and multitudes of those who live under our 
institutions know but little of their cost or meaning. The 
later generations read our history but little, and our foreign 
population scarcely at all. To remedy this neglect, by put- 
ting history into biography and linking biography with the 
highest oflBcial place in the nation, is one of the objects 
hoped to be secured by this endeavor. 

3 



4 l^kEfACE. 

By the great interest that attaches to our presidents, oil 
account of their personal worth as well as high position, it is 
hoped to win the attention of the young, first to the fine 
likenesses presented, and then to the sketches of the lives 
of our rulers. 

As the lives of the presidents so overlap each other, and 
so many lived contemporaneously, there must 'be not a little 
re^Detition, which the author has accepted without scruple as 
necessary to a fair presentation of each life. 

The difficulty of reducing the great amount of material in 
the personal lives and historical relations of the presidents 
to the narrow limits of a moderate-sized book cannot be 
realized by any one till he undertakes a similar task. 

The difficulty of reconciling the conflicting statements of 
different biographers and the differences of historians, and of 
supplying the deficiencies of their information, is greater than 
can be apprehended till one has had the experience of an 
effort of this kind. 

The author's hope is to so win attention to the history 
and biography of the, country that his readers will get a 
thirst for the larger works, and will so acquaint themselves 
with them as to become alive to the principles involved in 
our government and its history. Few things would be more 
beneficial than a general re-study of our national history. 
Patriotism is waning for Avant of it. 

Chicago, January 2, 1884. Gr. S. W. 




CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

The Beginning of the Eepublic . . . .17 

The Quality of Colonial Men .... 20 

Our Country the Outgrowth of Many Causes . . .21 

The Cause of the Revolution .... 21 

The Battles of Lexington and Concord . . .26 

The Battle of Bunker Hill .... 26 

The Taking of Fort Ticonderoga . . . .26 
The Evacuation of Boston . . . .27 

The Declaration of Independence . . . ,29 



CHAPTEE II. 
GEORGE WASHINGTON. 

First President of the United States. 

Ancestry . . . . . . .35 

Boyhood of Washington ..... 38 

His Education . . . . . .41 

His Youth ...... 43 

His Heart Sorrov? . , . . . .44 

His Surveying Expedition .... 45 

Coming Complications . . . . .46 

Lawrence Washington's Sickness .... 47 

A Perilous Mission . . . . , .48 

5 



6 CONTENTS. 




An Expedition to the Ohio 


51 


Bracldock's Campaign 


. 53 


Washington's Courtship and Marriage 


54 


Mount Vernon .... 


. 56 


Personal Characteristics .... 


59 


Commander-in-chief .... 


. 60 


Boston Besieged .... 


61 


New York in Danger 


. 63 


Philadelphia Captured .... 


66 


The Campaign of 1778 


. 68 


The Campaign of 1779 . 


68 


The Campaign of 1780 


. 70 


The Campaign of 1781 . • . 


71 


Life at Mount Vernon 


. 74 


The Confederation and the Constitution 


76 


"Washington Elected President 


. 78 


Washington's Administration 


80 


Washington's Death 


. 84 


The Grave of Washington . . . 


85 



CHAPTER III. 



JOHN ADAMS. 




Second President of the United States. 




Genealogy ...... 


. 89 


John Adams, a Teacher . . . . . 


91 


Law Practice in Braintree 


. 94 


Removal to Boston . . . . . 


97 


Public Life Began ..... 


. 99 


The Colonial Congress . . . . . 


101 


CoiTCspondence with his Wife 


. 103 


His Election to the Provincial Congress 


103 


The Second Continental Congress 


. 103 


Minister to France . . . . . 


105 


Massachusetts Constitutional Convention 


. 106 



CONTENTS. 



Commissiouer for Peace . 

The New Commission 

Adams' Publications in England 

Made Vice President 

Made Second President 

Retirement to Braintree 

The Graves of tlie Adamses 



107 
108 
109 
110 
110 
113 
115 



CHAPTER TV. 

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
Third President of the United States. 



Ancestry . 

His Education . 

Personal Appearance 

Mr. Jefferson a Lawyer 

Mr. Jefferson a Legislator 

Jefferson Not a Speaker . 

Loss by Fire 

Marriage 

The Approaching Conflict 

Nation Building 

Mr. Jefferson Made Governor . 

Mrs. Jefferson's Death 

Appointed to Negotiate Peace at Paris 

Commissioner of Treaties of Commerce 

Minister at the Court of France 

Secretary of State 

Resigns his Secretaryship 

Vice President . 

The Third President 

The Purchase of Louisiana 

Jefferson's Religious Opinions 

The Universitv of Viro;iRia 



119 
120 
125 
126 
127 
128 
129 
130 
132 
139 
141 
141 
143 
143 
144 
146 
150 
ISO 
152 
154 
156 
157 



COJS^TENTS. 



Financial Misfortunes 

Final Departure 

The Grave of Thomas Jefferson 



157 
157 
158 



CHAPTEK V. 

JAMES MADISON 
Fourth President of the United States, 
Ancestry, Youth and Education 
Entrance upon Public Life 
Made a Member of the Continental Congress 
Elected to the Virginia Legislature 
A Constitutional Convention 
The Federalist . 
A Member of Congress 
Secretary of State 
Fourth President 
War with England 
Ketirement in 1817 . 
Mrs. Madison . 
The Grave of James Madison 



163 
166 
168 
168 
170 
175 
175 
176 
177 
178 
179 
180 
181 



CHAPTER YL 

JAMES MONROE. 



Fifth President op the United States. 




Ancestry and Youth ..... 


. 183 


A Soldier ...... 


185 


A Legislator ..... 


. 187 


A Minister Abroad . . . . . 


188 


Governor of Virginia .... 


. 190 


Secretary of State . . . . . 


191 


Fifth President . . . . 


. 193 


Domestic Relations . . . . . 


196 


The Grave of James Monroe .... 


. 198 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTEK YII. 

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 
Sixth President of the United States, 
Ancestry . 
The Time 
His Boyhood 
The Lawyer 
The Writer 
Foreign Minister 
Begins Anew 
Minister to Russia 
Minister at the Court of St. James 
Secretary of State 
The President 
Representative in Congress 
The Grave of John Quincy Adams 



199 
200 
202 
205 
205 
207 
207 
209 
211 
211 
216 
220 
227 



CHAPTER YIIL 

ANDREW JACKSON. 
Seventh President of the United States 
Ancestry . 

Andrew Jackson, Senior 
Jackson's Boyhood 
Jackson the Youth 
Jackson the Lawyer 
The Legislator 
Judge Jackson 
Business Embarrassments 
Personal Complications 
General Jackson 
President .Jackson 
The Grave of Andrew Jackson 



229 
230 
231 
234 
237 
239 
240 
241 
241 
343 
249 
253 



10 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IX. 

MARTIN VAN BUREN. 

Eighth President op the United States. 

Ancestry, Birth and Boyhood .... 255 

Van Buren the Lawyer ..... 258 

A Politician ...... 259 

Secretary of State ..... 263 

Vice-President Van Buren ..... 266 

President Van Buren ..... 266 

The Grave of Martin Van Buren .... 271 

CHAPTER X. 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 




Ninth President of the United States. 




Ancestry . 


. . 


. 273 


Birth and Youth 


.... 


274 


Opening Manhood . 


• 


. 275 


Governor Harrison 


. 


281 


The Tecumseh War 


• * • 


. 282 


Commander-in-Chief 


. • • 


288 


The Grave of William 


Henry Harrison . 


. 292 



CHAPTER XI. 

JOHN TYLER. 

Tenth President op the United States. 

Ancestry ....... 295 

Birth and Boyhood ..... 296 

Political Career . . . . . .297 

Vice-President and President Tyler . . . 303 

The Grave of John Tyler ..... 308 



CONTENTS. 11 

CHAPTER XII. 

JAMES KNOX POLK. 

Eleventh President of the United States. 
Ancestry ....... 312 

His Boyhood ...... 313 

Mr. Polk a Lawyer ..... 314 

Mr. Polk a Legislator ..... 315 

Mr. Polk the Congressman ..... 316 

Mr. Polk the Governor . . . . .318 

Mr Polk as President . . . . .331 

The Grave of James K. Polk . . . .325 

CHAPTER XIII. 

ZACHARY TAYLOR. 
Twelfth President of the United States. 

Birth and Boyhood ...... 328 

Zachary Taylor the Soldier .... 330 

President Taylor ...... 340 

The Grave of Zachary Taylor .... 342 

CHAPTER XIV. 

MILLARD FILLMORE. 
Thirteenth President of the United States. 

Birth and Early Life ..... 345 

Mr. Fillmore the Lawyer and Public Man . . . 346 

Vice-President Fillmore ..... 347 

Mr. Fillmore the President . . . 348 

The Evening Repose . . . .351 

The Grave of Millard Fillmore . . . .352 



li CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER Xy. 

FRANKLIN PIERCE. 

Fourteenth President of the United States. 

Birth and Early Life . . . . .353 

Mr. Pierce the Lawyer and Politician . . . 354 

President Pierce . . . . ' . . 357 

The Grave of Franklin Pierce . . . .359 

CHAPTER XYI. 

JAMES BUCHANAN. 

Fifteenth President of the United States. 

Ancestry and Education ..... 361 

Buchanan the Lawyer ..... 362 

Buchanan the Legislator ..... 362 

Secretary of State ..... 364 

Minister to England ..... 364 

President Buchanan ..... 365 

The Grave of James Buchanan .... 367 

CHAPTER XYII. 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
Sixteenth President op the United States. 

Ancestry and Early Life ..... 370 

Early Manhood ..... 373 

Lincoln a Soldier ...... 375 

Lincoln a Surveyor ..... 377 

Lincoln a Legislator ..... 377 

Mr. Lincoln a Lawyer ..... 381 

Mr. Lincoln a Congressman ..... 385 



CONTENTS. 13 

Return to His Profession . . . .387 

The Great Debate . . . . . * . 391 

The Coming Storm ..... 394 

Mr. Lincoln President ..... 399 

The Grave of Abraham Lincoln .... 405 



CHAPTER XYIII. 

ANDREW JOHNSON. 
Seventeenth President of the United States. 

Ancestry ....... 407 

Childhood and Youth ..... 407 

Early Manhood ...... 409 

Johnson a Legislator , . . . .410 

Military Governor . . . . . .412 

Mr. Johnson Vice-President . . . .413 

Mr. Johnson President ..... 414 

The Grave of Andrew Johnson • . , , 417 



CHAPTEE XIX. 

ULYSSES S. GRANT. 
Eighteenth President of the United States. 

Ancestry, Birth and Boyhood .... 420 

Grant a Cadet ..... 423 

Lieutenant Grant . . . . . . 424 

Grant's Marriage ..... 425 

Captain Grant a Farmer ..... 427 

Grant a Real Estate Agent . . . ' . 427 

Grant a Clerk in Galena ..... 428 



14 CONTENTS. 

Tlie Opening Eebellion ..... 428 

Brigadier-General Grant ..... 429 

Lieutenant-General Grant .... 432 

President Grant ...... 436 

President Grant the Traveler .... 438 



CHAPTEE XX. 

RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES. 

Nineteenth President of the United States. 

Birth and Boyhood ...... 442 

The Youth and Student ..... 443 

Mr. Hayes the Lawyer ..... 444 

Mr. Hayes the Soldier ..... 444 

Governor Hayes ...... 446 

Mr. Hayes as President ..... 449 

Mr. Hayes' Marriage and Family . . . .450 

The Hayes Home ..... 452 

CHAPTEE XXI. 

JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD. 
Twentieth President of the United States. 



Ancestry . 

Birth, Boyhood and Youth 

Garfield's School Life 

Garfield a Teacher 

Colonel Garfield 

Congressman Garfield 

President Garfield 

Assassination 

The Grave of Garfield 



453 
455 
460 
462 
465 
467 
468 
469 
470 



COJfTEXTS. 15 

CHAPTER XXII. 

CHESTER ALLAN ARTHUR. 
Twenty-first President of the United States. 

Ancestry and Boyhood . . . . . 473 

Mr. Arthur the Lawyer ..... 474 
Mr. Arthur the Politician ..... 475 

Vice-President and President .... 479 

CIIAPTEE XXIII. 

An Analysis op the American Government . . . 481 

The Preamble ...... 482 

Article I . . . . . . .483 

Article n ...... 485 

Article m . . . . . .485 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Article I . . . . . . .487 

Article II ...... 493 

Article III . . . . . .495 

Article IV ...... 496 

Article V . . . , . . .497 

Article VI ... . . 498 

Article VII . . . . . .498 

amendments. 

Article I . . . . . . .500 

Article II ...... 500 

Article III . . . . . .500 

Article IV ...... 500 



16 

Article V . 
Article VI 
Article VII 
Article VIII 
Article IX 
Article X 
Article XI 
Article XII 
Article XIII 
Article XlV 
Article XV 



C0:N-TE2SrTS. 



50f 

501 

501 

501 

501 

501 

502 

502 

503 

503 

504 





THE LIVES AND GRAVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. 



CHAPITER I. 




THE BEGINJS^ING OF THE REPUBLIC. 

T is in the nature of men to honor and lore their rulers; 
and from this impulse of their nature the j^eople of all 
nations have not only magnified their rulers while they 

lived ; but preserved their histories, and, in the olden time, 

deified them after they were dead. 

No nation has had greater occasion to profoundly 

respect their rulers than the people of the United States, 
for no nation has ever had greater capacity and worth, nobler 
character and manhood in high places than this. From the 
beginning, the people have in the main selected great and true 
men for their public servants. Almost with instinctive knowledge 
have they put worth into power and honored with constant devo- 
tion the public service which deserved it. There is scarcely an 
instance in our national history which warrants the old slander 
that republics are ungrateful. On the contrary, this republic has 
gloried in its great and good men and sought them for jolaces of 
public trust and honor. And as their names fall deeper into the 
shadows of the past, the more sacred do they become in the grati- 
tude of the new generations. Even the new comers to our shores 
join in the grateful memories of the noble dead who served the 
republic in its early days and put something of their worth and 

2 17 



18 OUR PRESIDEKTS. 

power into its laws and institutions. The history of the respect 
that has been given to them through the successive generations 
since their departure is a quickening incentive to all aspirants 
for public favor to imitate their virtues and copy their devotion 
to the public good. Vigor of mind, high virtue, generous sym- 
pathy, manliness, private purity, domestic honor and unselfish 
devotion to the public good in men in high places, always have, 
and do now, command the dee2iest respect of the American 
people ; they have been trained to this ; it is in their blood. 
They came of good Anglo-Saxon stock. Our early English 
ancestors venerated great names and worth among the ruling 
classes. They profoundly honored the king and all royalty. They 
were slow to see any wrong in the king. His authority had 
sanctity in it in their mind. When, by the selfish greed of 
power and love of royalty, George III. disenchanted their minds 
of the glamour of royalty, they turned away from hereditary 
royalty with disgust, but soon learned to fix their loyal affections 
on royalty of mind in the noble rulers of their own choice, who 
answered infinitely better to their ideals of men in authority. 
From royal loyalists they changed to democratic loyalists. The 
seed of respect for "the powers that be," planted in the blood of 
their race by long obedience to "constituted authority," brought 
forth a full harvest in a republican government. The trained and 
christianized respect for rulers grew in due time into respect for 
the masses of men which republican rulers represent. In their 
minds their chosen rulers stood for the whole people. The presi- 
dent represented the whole people of the country, and was to be 
resjDCcted not only for his own worth as the head of the nation ; 
but as the symbol of all the people and their rights and inter- 
ests. He was more than a king; he was the chosen ruler of the 
people; chosen not to rule in any right of his own, but to rule 
as their voice and hand; not to enforce his own will, but to 
execute their laws, to enforce their will. By the change from a 
monarchical to a republican form of government, respect for 
rulers as persons was changed to respect for rulers as the embodi- 
ment of the people's will and worth. The president stood for 
the nation; not for states, but for the confederated embodiment 



THE BEGIKKIKG OF THE REPUBLIC. 19 

of the whole people. In this new aspect of rulers they became 
objects of higher and deeper interest. They stood for the people 
who had chosen them; for the nation as an organized common- 
wealth, as well as in their own worth. This new dignity of 
rulership our forefathers realized in its full force. 

The seeds of the republic were planted in a distrust of the 
king. As that grew, the necessity for self-government became 
more apparent. Slowly, but absolutely, at last, their loyalty 
and affection for the king died, and self-government was the one 
only form of national existence to adopt. They adopted it in 
solemn recognition of all that it meant, and so adoj)ting it they 
realized the momentous significance and responsibility of the 
ruler of a free people who lived and acted for them, in the 
heart of a new continent, growing rapidly in every element of 
power and greatness, with the eyes of the world turned upon 
them, and in an age ripe for great revolutions. Their peculiar, 
and as they thought jjrovidential, history deepened the solem- 
nity of what they did. 

Then, their first president was as a man and a magistrate so 
almost infinitely above the king they once loved but now loathed, 
and had done so much, and with such singular devotion to the 
public good and every high obligation in securing their liberties, 
that all their old respect for rulers returned to their hearts with 
increased tenderness and force. The president became more to 
them than the king ever was. In his person there centered all 
the profound regard they had learned to cherish for the people, 
for re]Dublican institutions, and the humanity of which they 
formed a part. The baptism of suffering and sorrow through 
which they passed in the change from the king to the president 
gave them one of the great lessons that went deepest into their 
hearts, and started in the new nation a tide of profound respect 
for the chief magistrate who was the jDcople's authority. 

No other nation ever had so fortunate a beginning, or so rich 
a pupilage through an infancy abounding in lessons of wisdom 
and worth, or so grand an entrance into the manhood of national 
life. Such a beginning prophesied all the greatness, worth and 
power which have followed. 



20 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

The colonial school of America was rough, but solid and 
genuine ; and trained a i^eople such as the world never saw before, 
as the seed of a new nation and a new era of mankind. 



{THE QUALITY OF COLONIAL MEN. 

In re-studying the lessons of that school nothing is clearer 
than that the men of the colonies were superior to the men of 
the British parliament with whom they contended. They were 
better students of English law and history, and especially better 
in the principles of the English constitution. They were better 
philosophers; more acute and comprehensive in their views of 
government; more loyal to reason and the lessons of human 
nature, and greatly more faithful in the application of christian 
principles to human affairs. The debates in parliament com- 
pared with the speeches in the public meetings in the colonies, 
indicate clearly that the leaders in thought in the colonies were 
the profounder and better men. And the people's appreciation 
and acceptance of that thought, compared with the prevailing 
style of thought among the English people, showed that the 
masses of the colonial people had gained upon the people of the 
mother country by their hard colonial school. They had a 
clearer hold upon principles and a greater loyalty to them; knew 
and appreciated human rights better, and were truer to them; 
carried with a heartier faith the teachings of the christian 
religion to their practical results, and believed more in indi- 
vidual responsibility and power. The result was, that both 
leaders and people became more assured in the righteousness of 
their convictions, and more positive in maintaining them. They 
became a people of thinkers who acted on their thoughts. Free- 
dom, human rights, personal responsibility, the authority of 
rulers, the duties of people, were themes they studied and dis- 
cussed. And this study had developed a power among the 
leaders able to cope with any in the English parliament, and 
among the people a stalwartness of conviction and will superior 
to what prevailed ^mong the English people. 



THE BEGINNING OF THE REPUBLIC. 21 



OUR COUNTRY THE OUTGROWTH OF MANY CAUSES. 

The establishment of our nationality was due to many 
causes. The church as the outgrowth of Romanism — absolute 
power — imperialism — had done its worst. With a cruel tyranny 
it had played lord of men and nations, of thought and con- 
science, of education and taxation, till it had produced more or 
less protestantism in all countries. And protestantism in con- 
flict with Romanism had produced more or less liberalism. And 
protestantism and liberalism had both trained a great body of 
free thinkers in all the more advanced countries. In France 
liberal thought was very powerful. With much good it did 
much evil. It prepared the way to give much help to the 
English colonies. In England protestantism and liberalism had 
weakened the power of kingcraft and strengthened the power 
of the people. In the English colonies of America protestantism 
was of the freest and most personal kind, having no interest in 
kingcraft and great sympathy with popular faith and rights. 
Everywhere a great struggle was coming on between consoli- 
dated power and the power of the people — between kingcraft 
and popular rights. The struggle on the part of King George 
and his parliament was to sustain kingcraft against the growing 
doctrine of popular rights. The logic, philosophy and morality 
were all on the side of the colonies, and these were not slow to 
produce character and power to sustain them. The world was 
ready for a great change. Roman imperialism had run its course 
to its own ruin. Kingcraft must sink with it. The final struggle 
for these ancient powers came with the American colonies because 
they were most advanced in intelligence and moral character and 
most animated by the true spirit and power of the christian 
religion. ♦ 

THE CAUSE OF THE REVOLUTION. 

The particular question at issue was the right of the English 
parliament to tax the colonies. The king and parliament claimed 
the absolute right, and to maintain it passed various kinds of tax 
laws and sought in arbitrary ways to enforce them; and in coij- 



22 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

nection with them passed repressive laws against nearly all kinds 
of manufactures. They taxed all goods imported into the colo- 
nies, and forbade all manufactures. The colonies claimed that 
as British subjects they could not be taxed against their will, or 
by a parliament in which they had no representation. They said 
taxation without representation is against English law and the 
constitution of the realm, and also against right and natural 
law. And here they stood and for years argued this question in 
all the forms in which it was presented, quoting all the best 
English lawyers and statesmen, and claiming that the free- 
dom of the British subject was invaded by the doctrines 
and practices of parliament. Every colony produced men 
equal to the occasion. In South Carolina Lynch, Gadsden and 
Eutledge with great clearness and power defended the colonial 
position. In Virginia Patrick Henry and Richard Henry Lee, 
and others, with logic and transcendent eloquence fired the 
hearts of the people with a knowledge of their rights and free- 
dom as British subjects. In Pennsylvania John Dickinson, the 
farmer writer, wrote in vigorous articles the true doctrines of 
English freedom, which were published in all the colonial papers 
and read and studied by all the people; read in book form in 
England and translated into French, and won for the colonies 
great sympathy in France. Benjamin Franklin, philosopher, 
writer, practical statesman, friend of humanity, lent the ener- 
gies of his great mind to maintain the colonial doctrine of 
English rights against parliamentary usurpation. William Liv- 
ingston and many like him in New York ; Roger Sherman in 
Connecticut ; James Otis, Samuel Adams, John Hancock and 
Mayhew Thatcher, in Massachusetts, kept constantly before the 
people their charter as well as their natural rights. The world 
had never seen an instance of a whole people studying so pro- 
foundly their political and natural rights, and so peacefully and 
religiously maintaining them. The lawyers and people of 
England were in a large majority with their parliament, in favor 
of taxing the colonies and prohibiting their manufactures. The 
argument of the colonies, as stated by their public men, their 
press^ ministers and legislative enactments, was about this, as 



THE BEGINNING OF THE REPUBLIC. 23 

stated by Mr. Bancroft in his history of the United States: 
''The hiw of nature is the law of God, irreversible itself and 
superceding all human law. It perfectly reconciles the true 
interest and happiness of every individual with the true interest 
and happiness of the universal whole. The laws and constitu- 
tion of the English government are the best in the world; 
because they approach nearest to the laws God has established in 
our nature. Those who have attempted this barbarous violation 
of the most sacred rights of their country deserve the name of 
rebels and traitors, not only against the laws of their country 
and their king, but against the laws of Heaven itself." 

But their arguments failed to stay the resolute wrong-head- 
edness of the king and parliament, and law after law was 
enacted to tax and oppress them. These laws they resisted in 
every way open to an intelligent and resolute people. They 
thoroughly studied and discussed all questions relating to them; 
ministers preached about them; the press was full of them. 
They made common cause and formed a colonial congi'css. 
From South Carolina to New Hampshire they became of one 
mind. They closed their ports against English goods and wore 
homespun clothes, and did without the common comforts to 
which they had been accustomed. They made it uncomfortable 
for soldiers quartered upon them, and for oppressive colonial 
governors. While they kept the peace, they resisted and made 
ineffectual the unjust laws of parliament. Merchants suspended 
their lucrative calling to see the goods sent for their customers 
returned to England in the same vessels in which they came. 
The rich vied with the poor in their loyalty to their conviction 
that it was wrong to pay unjust taxes. They made every new law 
which embodied the unjust principle of taxation without repre- 
sentation inoperative, and all the while increased the determina- 
tion in the king and parliament to enforce their laws with 
military power. At last the final test came on their determi- 
nation to tax tea, just to maintain their right. So, while other 
tax laws were in the main given up, a tax was laid on tea, and 
ships loaded for Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Charleston. 
Thv^e tea ships were sent into Boston harbor. The people, in 



24 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

mass meeting, urged their immediate return to England. The 
governor refused to give the shipmasters passes to go out of the 
harbor by the ports. A meeting of the people had been in ses- 
sion. a long time, and it was an hour after dark when word came 
that the governor had refused the pass. Then Samuel Adams 
rose and said: ''This meeting can do nothing more to save the 
country." Instantly a shout and a warwhoop was heard at the 
door. Forty or fifty men, disguised as Indians, rushed by 
toward Griffin's wharf, where the tea ships were fast. Hancock, 
Adams and the people followed in haste. Guards were posted 
to keep off spies. The men in disguise boarded the ships, and in 
three hours all the tea, three hundred and forty chests, was 
emptied into the sea. John Adams afterward, in a letter to 
Warren, said: "All things were conducted with great order, 
decency and perfect submission to government." The people on 
the wharf and in the streets were so still that every blow in 
breaking open the chests was distinctly heard. 

New York heard of it before its tea ships arrived and was 
anxious to do likewise, but the ships returned to England at 
once. At Philadelphia five thousand people met and allowed the 
tea ship to come no nearer than Chester, four miles below the 
city, from which point it returned to London immediately with 
its tea and a new freight of wisdom on board to carry back to 
parliament and the king. At Charleston the tea was unloaded 
into a cellar where it rotted ; no South Carolina tea drinker 
having any appetite for falsely-taxed tea. So ended the tea- 
taxing, but not the quarrel which it provoked. 

Parliament closed the port of Boston, called the legislature 
to Salem, forbade all public carrying business in Boston, desig- 
nated its principal citizens for trial in England on treasonable 
charges, quartered soldiers on the public common, ordered war 
ships and munitions of war into the^iarbor, made Boston the 
headquarters of the commanding general of all the forces in 
America, and him the governor of Massachusetts, who pro- 
rogued the legislature at his will and hindered legislation as 
much as possible. And yet Boston, with its harbor lined with 
war ships, its common covered with soldiers, its business para- 



THE BEGINNING OF THE REPUBLIC. 25 

lyzed, its people threatened with severest punishment, stood 
firmly on its asserted doctrines that parliament was wrong and 
the colonists right in all their diSerences. 

Old Faneuil Hall, the cradle of liberty, was kept warm with 
public meetings and discussions of the acts of parliament and 
measures of defense against its tyrannies. The first thing was to 
appeal to all the colonies to be united and of one mind about 
these oppressions, and the way to resist them. To secure this 
a congress was needed at once. After brief discussions the col- 
onies agreed to the necessity and appointed delegates: Virginia 
and South Carolina being most heartily in sympathy with Massa- 
chusetts. The discussions in calling this congress, and in it, 
developed two parties very distinctly, the lovers of monarchy 
and the lovers of republicanism — the fearful and the brave. 
Dickinson and Franklin, of Pennsylvania, counseled modera- 
tion, yet were in sympathy with the people. Both parties were 
represented in the congress, but the overwhelming majority 
were with suffering Boston and against parliament. The tyran- 
nical change made by the king in the charter of Massachusetts 
had aroused the people, and they said all government was at an 
end because the change was unconstitutional; and they forbade 
the king's Judges from holding court in all the counties. The 
governor had seized by force the provincial stock of powder and 
established a fort on Boston Neck, which had so exasperated the 
people that his government was at an end everywhere out of 
Boston, and the people Avere being rapidly aroused to a general 
revolt. Men of military experience were being fired ; farmers 
and mechanics were getting ready for desperate service. Con- 
gress was hearing alraost daily of what was transpiring in and 
around Boston, 

In this state of fearful ferment the men of that congress saw 
clearly that the king and his parliament meant subjugation of 
the colonies; yet with great moderation and profound sagacity 
they cemented more and more the bonds of union, fanned the 
flame of liberty, roused the courage of the weak and laid surely 
the foundation of a new nation. 



26 OUK PRESIDENTS. 



THE BATTLES OF LEXINGTON AND CONCORD. 

On the nineteenth of April, 1775, the ever-memorable first 
skirmish between the British soldiers and the American minute 
men took place at Lexington and Concord, in which the Ameri- 
cans lost forty-nine killed, five missing and had thirty-four 
wounded, and the British two hundred and seventy-three in 
killed, wounded and missing. The British went to destroy stores 
and frighten the people; they returned a rout of frightened sol- 
diers, leaving their dead and wounded along the way. ' ' They were 
driven before the Americans like sheep," and when they met a 
large body of troops sent out to rescue them, "they lay on the 
ground for rest, their tongues hanging out of their mouths like 
dogs after a chase." 

BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

Two months later, on the seventeenth of June, 1775, the battle 
of Bunker Hill was fought, which was a battle, indeed, in which 
the British reported a loss of one thousand and fifty. Seventy 
commissioned officers were wounded and thirteen killed. The 
loss of the Americans was one hundred and forty-five killed and 
missing and three hundred and four wounded. The powder of 
the Americans gave out and they were obliged to leave their 
entrenchments on the third charge of the British. It was a dear 
bought victory, teaching them the wholesome lesson that the 
Americans would fight. 

THE TAKING OF FORT TICONDEROGA. 

At day-break, on the morning of the tenth of May, 1775, 
eighty-three Vermont men, called "Green Mountain Boys," 
under the lead of Ethan Allen, surprised and took Fort Ticon- 
deroga, on Lake Champlain. On the same day. Crown Point, 
a few miles away, surrendered upon summons to a detachment 
of Vermont minute men. 

On the tenth of May, a few hours after the capture of Ticon- 
deroga, the second continental congress met at Philadelphia. 



THE BEGINNING OF THE REPUBLIC. 27 

It had such members as Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Adams, 
John Adams, George Washington, Richard Henry Lee, Patrick 
Henry, Peyton Randolph, Thomas Jefferson, John Jay, Robert 
R. Livingston, John Dickinson, John Hancock, and many more 
held as their peers, a galaxy of brilliant and grand men such as 
is seldom seen in this world. 

On the fifteenth of June, two days before the battle of 
Bunker Hill, George Washington was elected commander-in- 
chief of the continental army. Yet all this time the colonists 
were seeking reconciliation with the mother country, and a settle- 
ment of all their difficulties on just and humane grounds. They 
were sending petition after petition to the king, asking for a 
redress of their grievances, and expressing in strong and even 
tender terms their loyalty to him, and their love of their 
mother country and her people and laws, only to be spurned 
from the throne and have their petitions responded to with 
increased outrages upon their property and rights. Franklin 
was for a long time kept in England as the agent of the colo- 
nies, to present their appeals and give parliament, the king and 
people of England the true state of their case. 

While this effort at reconciliation was going on the king was 
sending troops to Boston to punish its independent spirit, traf- 
ficking with other kings for foreign troops, enlisting all he could 
at home, and threatening to turn the slaves and Indians upon 
the defenseless colonies. 

THE EVACUATION OF BOSTON. 

Washington took his place at the head of the army a few 
days after the Battle of Bunker Hill, with his headquarters at 
Cambridge, Massachusetts. With a mob for an army, though 
composed of noble men, poorly armed and officered, with but 
little ammunition, little money, little of anything that makes 
an efficient army ; annoyed, tried, hindered everywhere, he so 
hedged in and surrounded and pressed and frightened the 
British army in Boston as to force them to evacuate the place 
and take to their ships for safety. This Avas jn March, 1776, 



28 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

nine months after he had been appointed commander-in-chief. 
It was done without a battle, simply by hedging in, cutting off 
supplies, taking possession of and fortifying strategic points and 
giving them a clear idea that in a few days they would be at the 
mercy of the rebels they had so abused and despised. 

Three months after, the twenty-eighth of June, 1776, the 
battle of Fort Moultrie was fought in Charleston harbor, which 
ended in disaster to the British ships and arms, and proved that 
the South Carolinians were as able to defend their native soil 
as the men of Massachusetts. 

Each colony was discussing in its Congress the question of 
independence, and every discussion carried it nearer that great 
event. One by one they began to declare for it. The first of 
July was set apart by the Colonial Congress for a discussion of 
this subject. The situation of the affairs of the colonies and 
their relations to Great Britain were thoroughly discussed. The 
great spirits argued with a mighty power for independence. On 
the second of July, with fifty members present, the great vote 
was taken by twelve of the colonies. New York being yet unde- 
cided, which resolved: "That these United Colonies are, and of 
right ought to be, free and independent states." 

This resolution of congress made a new country, and created 
the necessity for presiding magistrates. No greater act had ever 
been done by any body of mortal men. It was as they believed 
to effect the whole world and revolutionize its governments. It 
remained for Congress to set forth the reasons for this act, then 
inaugurate the machinery for the new government and defend it 
against British arms. 

A committee was appointed to draft a declaration of their 
independence, with the reasons therefor, and as Thomas Jeffer- 
son, of Virginia, received the most votes, he was designated to 
write the declaration. From the fullness of his own mind, with- 
out consulting one single book, Jefferson drafted this immortal 
state paper. In his first draft he made a severe indictment 
against King George for having forced slavery and the slave 
trade upon the colonies, and for having vetoed all their attempts 
to prohibit them. This indictment was ''disapproved by some 



THE BEGlJfliflKG OE THE llEPUBLiC. 29 

southern gentlemen, whose reflections were not yet matured to 
the full abhorrence of that traffic, and the offensive expressions 
were at once yielded." Such was the abhorrence and fear of 
slavery at that time in the colonies, that had not this been 
expunged from Jefferson's first draft, it is altogether probable 
that slavery would not have survived the establishment of the 
new government. No other so fatal mistake was made by the 
grand patriots of that great day. Slavery was the one root of 
evil left to grow on American soil, a great tree of oppression and 
wrong. The spirit of conciliation was so great in those noble 
men, that they yielded this point in the expectation that inde- 
pendence of British tyranny would put an end to slavery. 
Beyond this change no essential modification was made, save an 
improvement of some of its phraseology. 

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDEN'CE. 

''When in the course of human events it becomes necessary 
for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have con- 
nected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of 
the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of 
nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect for 
the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the 
causes which impel them to the separation. 

" We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are 
created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with cer- 
tain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and 
the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights govern- 
ments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers 
from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form 
of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right 
of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new govern- 
ment, laying its foundations on such principles, and organizing 
its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to 
effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dic- 
tate that governments long established, should not be changed 
for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience 



30 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while 
evils are sufPerable, than to right themselves by abolishing the 
forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of 
abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, 
evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is 
their right, it is their duty, to throw oif the government, and to 
provide new guards for their future security. Such has been 
the patient sufferance of these colonies, and such is now the 
necessity which constrains them to alter their form of govern- 
ment. The history of the present king of Great Britain is a 
history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having, in direct 
object, the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these 
states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world: 

"He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and 
necessary to the public good. 

" He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate 
and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation 
till his assent could be obtained; and when so suspended, he has 
utterly neglected to attend to them. 

"He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation 
of large districts, unless those people would relinquish the right 
of representation in the legislature; a right inestimable to them, 
and formidable to tyrants only. 

"He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, 
uncomfortable and distant from the depository of public records, 
for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his 
measures. 

"He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for 
opposing, with manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the 
people. *. 

' ' He has refused for a long time after such dissolutions, to 
cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, 
incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large 
for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime, exposed 
to all the danger of invasion from without and convulsions from 
within. 

"He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states, 



THE BEGIKNISTG OF THE REPUBLIC. 31 

for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of for- 
eigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration 
hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands. 

"He has obstructed the administration of justice by refusing 
his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers. 

"He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the 
tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their 
salaries. 

"He has created a multitude of new offices, and sent hither 
swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their 
substance. 

"He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies, 
without the consent of our legislature. 

"He has affected to render the military independent of, and 
superior to, the civil power. 

"He has combined with others (that is, with the Lords and 
Commons of Britain), to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to 
our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his 
assent to their acts of pretended legislation: For quartering large 
bodies of armed troops among us: For protecting them by mock 
trial, from punishment for any murders which they should com- 
mit on the inhabitants of these states: For cutting off trade 
with all the world: For imposing taxes on us without our 
consent : For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial 
by jury: For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pre- 
tended offenses: For abolishing the free system of English laws 
in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary 
government, and enlarging its boundaries, so as to render it at 
once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same 
absolute rule into these colonis: For taking away our charters, 
abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering, fundamentally, 
the powers of our governments: For suspending our own legis- 
latures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legis- 
late for us in all cases whatsoever. 

"He has abdicated government here by declaring us out of 
his protection, and waging war against us. 



3^ OtTR tHESlDEiTTg. 

'*^He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our 
towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. 

**He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign 
mercenaries to complete the work of death, desolation and 
tyranny already begun, with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy 
scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally 
unworthy the head of a civilized nation. 

"He has constrained our fellow citizens, taken captive on 
high seas, to bear arms against their country; to become the 
executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves 
by their hands. 

" He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has 
endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the mer- 
ciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undis- 
tinguishable destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. 

"In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for 
redress in the most humble terms; our petitions have been 
answered only by repeated injuries. A prince whose character 
is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant is unfit 
to be a ruler of a free people. 

"Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British 
brethren. "We have warned them from time to time of attempts 
made by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdic- 
tion over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of 
our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their 
native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by 
the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, 
which would inevitably interrupt our connections and corre- 
spondence. They, too, have been deaf to the voice of justice 
and consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the neces- 
sity which pronounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold 
the rest of mankind, enemies in war ; in peace, friends. 

"We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of 
America, in general congress assembled, appealing to the 
Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, 
do, in the name and by the authority of the good people of 
these colonies, solemnly publish and declare that these United 



THE BEGINNIXG OF THE REPUBLIC 33 

Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and indepexden'T 
states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British 
crown, and that all political connection between them and the 
state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved, 
and that as free and independent states they have full power to 
levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, 
and to do all otlier acts and things which independent states 
may of right do. And, for the support of this declaration, 
with a firm reliance on the protection of Divixe Providexce, 
we mutually i^ledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our 
sacred honor." 

This immortal state paper, which created a nation and startled 
the old nations with a proclamation of the enduring freedom and 
rights of all humanity, was an exact transcript of the mind and 
heart of the people of the colonies. Jefferson wrote it out of his 
heart, and it has immortalized his name; but he only wrote for 
the people, and it has given enduring fame to them and the work 
they did for themselves and humanity. There are no richer 
chapters in human history than those that record the inception 
and establishment of the United States government. Every 
youth in America, aye, in the whole world, should study them 
till he learns by heart the grand worth of the noble men and 
great deeds of those '^ times that tried men's souls." John 
Adams said, on the day the declaration was passed: "The 
greatest question is decided which ever was debated in Amer- 
ica, and a greater perhaps never was, nor will be, decided 
among men. When I look back to 1761, and run through 
the series of political events, the chain of causes and effects, 
I am surprised at the suddenness as well as greatness of this 
revolution. Britain has been filled with folly, and America 
with wisdom. It is the will of Heaven that the tAvo countries 
should be sundered forever, and it may be the will of Heaven 
that America shall suffer calamities still more Avasting, and dis- 
tresses yet more dreadful. If this is to be the case, the furnace 
of affliction produces refinement in states as Avell as individuals; 
but I submit all my hopes and fears to an overruling Providence, 
in which, unfashionable as the faith may be, I firmly believe." 
3 



Si Orii PRESlDEKl'S. 

It was the folly, selfislmess and tyranny of Britain that sepa- 
rated the colonies from her. The colonies outgrew the mother 
country in mind and heart, in ideas and men, in conscience and 
character. A few in England kept abreast of American growth, 
but they were too few to rej^ress the rising tide of venality and 
dominance of power. American youth should study those 
times. From 1761 to 1783 a series of events transpired more 
important to humanity than any ever seen in the same time, save 
at the establishment of Christianity, — a series which need to be 
studied by our modern men to rekindle their patriotism, to 
quicken their respect for true men and righteous principlies, 
and to revive in them the moral elements of personal and 
national freedom. Mr. Bancroft, in his history of the United 
States, has set these things in order with consummate fidelity 
and skill, worthy of the careful study of the best men. His 
great work should be in every American -home, and be made to 
contribute to the education and growth of all American men. 

In the stirring and prolific time from 1761 to 1783 the first 
presidents of this republic were made. Their characters cannot 
be understood except by a study of the times, men, events and 
principles that made them. They were exceptionally grand 
men, because they lived in times exceptionally charged with 
great principles, occasions and events. Our men of to-day per- 
haj)S need nothing more than a baptism in the spirit and power 
of the American revolution. It is the purpose of this review of 
the lives of our presidents to relight the old fires in the souls of 
our modern men, and invigorate our modern character with the 
mighty, manly and moral forces which gave the world such men 
as George Washington and his compeers. 




CHAPTER II. 



GEOEGE WASHINGTON". 

, First President op the United States. 




ANCESTRY. 

Genealogists have found no difficulty in tracing 
the line of the Washington ancestry back through six 
"'^ centuries of English history. It was a vigorous stock, 
^^ and held its distinct place and power in the world by 
marked qualities of mind and body, which persisted in 
living and having and being known. Marrying into dif- 
ferent families, serving different kings and governments, chang- 
ing localities and countries, did not weaken the family qualities 
flor abate its force of character. It rather gained strength and 
improved in quality till it flowered in the transcendent oj)ulence 
and excellence of our Washington, who made his name and time 
and country immortal. 

The family was doubtless of Norman origin and served under 
William the Conquerer. Among the knights of the county of 
Durham, England, who held great landed estates and manorial 
privileges, in the twelfth centuiy, was William De Hertburn. 
It was the custom at that time for the owners of large estates, 
with castles and villages on them, to take the name of the estate. 
The records of the time show that William De Hertburn 
exchanged his village of Hertburn for the manor and village of 
Wessyngton, receiving the diocese with it. After that the De 
Hertburn family took the name of its new estates, and appears 

35 



36 OUR I'RESlDEXTS. 

on the records as De Wessyngton. The De Wessyngtons appear 
at different times and always in important positions, till 1264 
the name of William AVeshington is recorded on the roll of loyal 
knights who fought for their sovereign in the battle of Lewes, 
when the king was taken prisoner. Here the De is left off and 
the name takes a new form. 

In 1416 John De AVessyngton was elected prior of the Benedic- 
tine convent, with a cathedral attached. This was an ancient and 
honorable position, taking rank with a bishopric. There had 
been many disputes about the claims and privileges of this con- 
vent. John De Wessyngton took up the dispute in a tract, 
which thoroughly set forth the rights of the convent and settled 
the long controversy in its favor. It won him much renown in 
his time. 

The De Wessyngtons separated and went into different coun- 
tries, engaged in different pursuits, some in the learned profes- 
sions, some as great laud owners, some were knighted for 
valorous services, some associated with religious houses. Grad- 
ually the De was dropped from the family name, and in the 
later records it appears as it is now spelled, Washington. 

The branch of the family from which our Washington 
descended, sprang from Laurence Washington, Esq., of Gray's 
Inn, son of John Washington, of Lancashire. 

This Laurence Washington was for a time mayor of North- 
ampton, and received in 1538 a grant of the manor of Sulgrave 
with other lands adjoining. Sulgrave remained the landed 
estate of the family till 1620, and was called ''The Washington 
Manor." Several of the descendents of this family distinguished 
themselves in wars and public services. This branch of the 
family was always true to the king, and under the protectorate 
when the king was in exile, many of his faithful subjects sought 
homes in other lands, some of them in the new colony of Vir- 
ginia, which, from its fidelity to the exiled monarch and the 
Anglican church, had become a welcome refuge to the cavaliers. 
Among those Avho came here were John and Andrew Washing- 
ton, grandsons of the grantee of the Sulgrave estate. 

The brothers reached Virginia in 1657 and made extensive 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 37 

land purchases in Westmoreland county, between the Potomac 
and Rappahannock rivers. John made his home on Bridge's 
creek and married Miss Anne Pope of the same county, thus at 
once identifying himself with the interests and life of the colony. 
He entered largely into the agricultural pursuits of the county; 
became a magistrate; a member of the house of burgesses ; a 
colonel in the military forces that operated against the Seneca 
Indians, and a tower of strength in the community of which he 
was an honored member. The parish in which he resided was 
named for him. He is buried in the family burial place on 
Bridge's creek. 

His extensive landed estate and accumulations remained in 
the family. Augustine Washington, John's grandson, was the 
fatlier of George Washington. Augustine was born in 1694, forty- 
seven years after his grandfather reached America. He was mar- 
ried April 20, 1715, to Jane Butler, daughter of Caleb Butler, of 
the same county. He had four children by her, but only Lawrence 
and Augustine survived the years of childhood; their mother 
died November 24, 1728. March 6, 1730, he married Mary Ball, 
a young and interesting girl, regarded as the belle of the neigh- 
borhood. Six children came of this marriage: George, Samuel, 
John Augustine, Charles, Elizabeth and Mildred. Mildred died 
in infancy. 

George, the eldest, the great general, president, man, 
whom we can scarcely think of as a child, was born February 22, 
1732, in the old home on Bridge's creek. This old family home 
of the Washingtons occupied a sightly position, overlooking a 
great reach of the Potomac river and valley. The house had four 
rooms on the ground floor, a high pointed roof with rooms in it, 
and immense chimneys at each end. The house is entirely 
gone. There is nothing there to mark it as once a home, but 
the inscription on a stone which tells the traveler that this is 
the birth-place of George Washington. The record of the 
Washington ancestry is a noble one, showing that the family 
through every variety of experience and trial had kept a high 
respectability, and met all the demands of noble life with ability, 
fortitude and success. There seems always to have been in the 



38 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

family a strong tendency to the independence of agricultural 
pursuits. They were lords of land. They were patriarchal 
men, and had large families, flocks and possessions. They seem 
through the whole six centuries of their known history, to have 
been loyal to their king, patriotic and devout. They were a 
large-minded, conservative, generous, devout race of men, 
abreast of their times, provident, broad-seeing, magnets around 
which property and men naturally gathered, centers of power 
which their communities always felt with confidence and respect. 

BOYHOOD OF WASHI^STGTOlSr. 

The trite saying that "^'the boy is father of the man," is 
seldom found truer than in the case of Washington. Our Virginia 
boy that we have found has twenty generations of good English 
blood running in his veins, and the strong minds and hearts of 
a long line of noble ancestors behind him, is favored with some 
excellent surroundings that are likely to do more and better for 
him than they would for many boys less thoughtful and sensi- 
tive to such surroundings. He had no village near him where 
the boys congregate often to amuse each other, dissipate time, 
originate nonsense, concoct mischief and create demoralizing 
tastes. He had no resort of evil associates, to counteract the 
good influences of his home and his neighbors. He had the 
open country which he early appreciated, the business of his 
father's plantation, his good home, his two older half brothers, 
who were high minded, and the strong interest of the family in 
the English church, which in Virginia was the prevailing 
church. 

The tradition of the neighborhood represents his father, 
Augustine, as seeking in ways peculiar to himself to impress 
upon George the lessons of virtue and religion. The strong 
mother, who was always a woman of high force of character, did 
her full part in giving shape and force to the character of her 
first born. 

Lawrence was fifteen years older than George, and was sent 
to England to be educated. He returned, an educated and 
accomplished young man^ when George was seven or eight years 



GEORGE ^'ASHIXGTON", 39 

old. He took a great interest in George and the two became 
fast and life-long friends. The stories of his school life, his 
teachers and friends in England, of English customs, manners, 
society, politics and men, which Lawrence told with youth- 
ful enthusiasm, to amuse and instruct George, were of immense 
importance to him. The educated thought, language and man- 
ners of Lawrence had their influence. Lawrence became the 
model man for George to imitate and grow uj? to. Few things, 
probably, in his boyhood did more to elevate and give character 
and cast to George's mind than this constant association with 
his educated and high-minded brother. 

Soon after George was born, the family moved to an estate 
in Stafford county, ojiposite Fredericksburg. The house to 
which they went was similar to the one they left, and stood on 
rising ground overlooking tlie Kapi^ahannock. There was a 
meadow in front of the house which was often George's play- 
ground. He was a robust boy, large of his age, tall7 atliletic, 
vigorous and fond of all athletic sports. Pie grew up among 
the fine horses of the plantation, their friend and rider. By 
the time he was twelve years old he felt himself equal to the 
management of any stalwart and spirited colt. In jumping, 
running, climbing, pitching quoits, throwing stones, lifting, 
wrestling, and all the active games of the youth of his neighbor- 
hood, he was equal to the best. He was so full of muscular 
activity that he delighted in these sports. It is said that his 
fondness for them continued far into his manly years. These 
things show that he was a \Yide-awake boy and must have been 
a great favorite among the boys of his neighborhood. 

Lawrence had inherited much of the military spirit of his 
ancestors. His education in England had quickened it. His 
two voyages across the Atlantic had taught him to love the sea. 
Two or three years after his return from England, a difficulty 
with the Spaniards in the West Indies broke out. France lent 
aid to Spain. A regiment of four battalions was raised in the 
colonies and sent to Jamaica. There was a quick outburst of 
military ardor in Virginia. Lawrence Washington, now twenty- 
two, caught the spirit and enlisted. He obtained a captain's 



40 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

commission in tlie regiment and embarked with it for the West 
Indies. He served under General Wentworth and Admiral 
Vernon, and acquired the friendshii^ of both. He served with 
zeal through that cam})aign, and returned to rehearse its vivid 
ex23eriences in the ears of George. 

George, too, had inherited the military spirit of his ances- 
tors, and that spirit was easily aroused in him. The recitals of 
Indian wars, the stories of ancestral military exploits, Law- 
rence's observations in England, and now his actual experience 
in an army on sea and land, fired the military spirit in the boy's 
heart, and he became the military leader of the boys at school. 
He organized them, drilled them, fought mimic battles with 
them, and thus in his own and their hearts began that training 
which served them so well in after years. 

Lawrence came back from the West Indies intending to seek 
promotion in the army and devote himself tO military pursuits. 
But becoming acquainted with Miss Anne Fairfax and falling in 
love with her he changed his plan, married her and settled 
down on his estate which, in honor of his admiral, he named 
Mount Vernon. 

Augustine, the father, died April 12, 1743, after a brief 
illness, aged forty-nine. He left large possessions, which he 
divided by will; giving Lawrence the estate on the Potomac, which 
he named for his admiral, and several shares in iron works; to 
Augustine the estate on Bridge's creek; to George the estate on 
• the Eappahannock, when he should become of age; and to the 
rest their share of his property; but put all the property of the 
children under age into the mother's hands to manage till they 
should reach their majority. Augustine soon married an heiress 
of the same county of his estate, Miss Anne Aylett. 

George was left fatherless at eleven years of age ; so the 
responsibilities of the household and estate rested upon him and 
his mother. Thus at twelve he took up a man's cares and 
responsibilities in connection with his mother. Great school 
was this for such a boy. 



GEOKGE WASHIXGTOX. 41 



HIS EDUCATIOlSr. 



Such a boy as George Washington is sure of an education, 
whether the schools provide for it or not. His own strong judg- 
ment will lead him to educate himself. Life around him will 
give him lessons. He will force circumstances to become his 
teachers. He will demand knowledge of the men and things 
about him, and they will grant the demand. His ancestry and 
his life make it certain that he was born to greatness. He was 
the child of a favoring Providence. The conditions of eminent 
usefulness were all fulfilled in the circumstances of his birth 
and life. While humanly speaking he was a self-made man, 
truly speaking he was divinely made. The history into which 
he is set as the most lustrous gem, bears to the man of faith 
undoubting marks of a divine procedure, of a purpose to lift 
the world to a higher life through America, and Washington 
appears as the chosen and prepared man to lead in the sublime 
enterprise. To one who has studied the whole matter pro- 
foundly, this seems clear. And this thought is the fitting one 
to preface a consideration of his education. 

In those days the children of the Virginia planters Avere edu- 
cated as they could be. The estates were large, and neighbors 
far apart. The schools were not plenty, nor of a high order. 
One Mr. Hobby, a tenant of George's father and sexton of the 
church which the family attended, kept a school in a humble 
building called "The old Field school-house;" here George got 
the rudiments of reading, writing and ciphering. Nothing but 
the beginnings of an education was attempted. But the helps 
which the boy got at school were so meagre that his parents 
joined their help with the teachers as much as they could. 
After his father's death he was sent to his brother Augustine, 
at Bridge's creek, where a more advanced and systematic school 
was taught by a Mr. Williams. His education here, where he 
remained the most of the time for four years, was of the plain 
and solid kind. His object seems to have been to fit himself 
for the practical business of a Virginia planter. He was fond 
of mathematics, and became quite proficient, not only in arith- 



43 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

metic, but in geometry and surveying. He practiced the art of 
surveying in the fields about the school, and made extensive and 
accurate drawings of them which are preserved. It is not 
known that he studied grammar or rhetoric, or any lingual or 
philosophical studies. His early attempts at composition, pre- 
served at Mount Vernon, by their grammatical mistakes and 
inaccuracies indicate that all philological studies were neglected. 
He aimed at the practical. He has left a volume into which he 
had copied forms for most all kinds of business transactions, 
such as notes, bills of sale and exchange, bonds, deeds, Avills, 
legal transactions of all kinds common in the colony. He had 
dealings with domestics, tenants, magistrates and every matter 
of business likely to occur in his life, set in form, and neatly 
and accurately written out. His manuscript school-books are 
preserved — models of painstaking neatness and precision. His 
field-books of surveying show proficiency in drafting, and that 
he studied order and accuracy as he would study a science. 
Even in these early days Mr. Irving, his most elaborate and 
accomplished biographer says: ''He had acquired the magic of 
method, which of itself works wonders." 

When about fourteen, a plan was concocted by Lawrence and 
Mr. Fairfax to get him a place in the navy. A miidshipman's 
warrant was obtained, his mother's consent gained and his lug- 
gage taken aboard the vessel he was to go on ; when his mother 
relented and he was retained at school a while longer. 

It is recorded of his mother that at stated times she was 
accustomed to gather her family about her aud read to them 
from her favorite book, " Sir Matthew Hale's Contemplations, 
Moral and Divine." And we may well suj^pose that her read- 
ings were selected with reference to the moral lessons they 
imjjarted, and were emphasized with a mother's wisdom and 
affection. The effect of this maternal instruction on such a 
thoughtful youth as George, must have been great. His biog- 
raphers have taken great pains to trace his ancestry and to 
recount the surrounding influences that helped educate and 
make George "Washington, and have spoken res^^ectfully of his 
mother's part; yet.it seems clear to the author of this sketch. 



GEOEGE WASHI]S"GTOK. 43 

that the mother's part in his education was the major part. She 
was a beautiful and good M^oman; he was her oldest child; she 
was yet young when left alone to care for the family and great 
estates. Many must have been the consultations which she 
and her son had over their affairs. The management of their 
property, domestics and their families ; the care and education 
of the children, their discipline, health, manners and morals, all 
came often before the young mother and her thoughtful and 
considerate son. This education with and by his mother was 
more to him in making him the wise, great and good man he 
was, than all he got from schools and books. 

This is one of those marked instances of what a good mother 
can do for her children when left to her sole care. Every 
country and age abounds with such cases. 

HIS YOUTH. 

Lawrence Washington, living on his estate, which he called 
Mount Vernon, in close proximity to his father-in-law, William 
Fairfax, invited George to his home on leaving his school. 
Oeorge had now become a youth. Though only sixteen, he was 
tall, sedate, courteous in manners, more a man than a boy. 

William Fairfax was a brother of Lord Fairfax, and had 
come to Virginia to look after the immense estates of his 
brother. Lord Fairfax had received grants of the land between 
the Rappahannock and Potomac rivers, and tiring of society at 
home on account of social disappointment, he came to Virginia 
and established his brother on his estate. Their eleo-ant English 
home, near Mount Vernon, now became the frequent resort of 
George Washington. His frankness and modesty, and thought- 
ful, manly bearing won the cordial regard of all the family. 
The eldest son had just married and brought his wife and her 
sister home, adding much to the interest and sociality of the 
family. This educated circle of fine-bred j)eople, old and young, 
and all older than he, did much to refine his manners and give 
him the appearance of being older than he was. 

Lord Fairfax was a great rider and fox hunter, and kept 
horses and hounds for this old English sport. He found his 



44 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

match in young Washington, and in their frequent rides on the 
chase learned the young man's worth and attainments ; and 
engaged him to survey his grant of lands. This exactly suited 
young Washington, as he had educated himself for it, loved 
the wild woods of the mountain and valley, and had in his 
heart an unspoken reason for craving just such an adventurous 
excursion away from society into the wilds of the forest. 

HIS HEART SORROW. 

We have not been accustomed to think of George Washing- 
ton as a lovesick swain, or ever having had those sorrowful 
experiences of the heart which unrequited love produces and 
which always bring bitter disappointment and often disasters. 
But it seems clear that when he went from school to Mount 
Vernon, he carried a poor aching heart smitten with an affection 
not reciprocated, or which, for some reason, he did not announce 
to its object. Who the young miss was who so filled his great 
heart with tenderness and pain is not known. He speaks of her 
in a letter to his "Dear Friend Eobin," as "your Lowland 
Beauty." To different friends he wrote of his love sorrows. In 
his journal he wrote of it, and like other love-afflicted mortals, 
attempted to soothe his sorrows with poetic effusions. In these 
he speaks of his "j)oor, restless heart, wounded by cupid's dart, 
bleeding for one who remains pitiless of his griefs and woes." 
Some of his verses indicate that he never spoke his love to the 
ears that should have heard it, prevented, it may have been, by 
bashfulness: 

"Ah, woe is me, that I should love and conceal; 
Long have I wished and never dare reveal." 

This experience, perhaps, should be set down as a part of his 
youthful education. It was not a loss. It softened his nature 
and manners. It revealed to himself the depth of his heart 
capacity. It awakened in him that deej) respect for woman 
which he always felt, and might have been the secret of his 
studied courtesy of manner and gentleness of spirit toward all 
women. It is more than likely it was the experience of the 



OEORGE WASttiKGTOlT. 45 



tender passion that ledCim to write in his journal, " Rules for 
behavior in company and conversation." One of his lady friends 
in his youth, late in her life said of him: " He was a very bashful 
young man; I often wished that he would talk more." He also 
compiled in his journal a code of " morals and manners," that 
he might be guided by them in his conduct and intercourse in 
society. He was self-directing and self-educating, and so 
methodical that he set down in his journal his plans for self- 
improvement. His bashfulness, doubtless, made him feel that 
he must have rules of conduct, and enforce them upon himself. 
At this time he had had much experience of life; he had lost 
his father; had aided his mother in their extensive domestic and 
business affairs; had studied most of the time for four years; 
had listened much to his mother's reading and instruction; had 
associated intimately with his educated brother Lawrence, who 
was both father and brother to him and deeply loved him; had 
had his heart smitten with a great love; had had much inter- 
course with the eccentric, but strong Lord Fairfax, and with 
William Fairfax and his intelligent and refined family and 
visitors; had put in his journal his reflections and plans for self- 
improvement, and yet was but just entering his seventeenth 
year. It is clear, that, though not educated in any college of 
letters and science, he was educated and profoundly educated, 
for one of his age, in the school of life. A grand and broad 
foundation had been laid for the great manhood that was after- 
ward built thereon. 

HIS SURVEYING EXPEDITION. 

In the month of March, 1748, AVashington, with George 
William Fairfax, son of William, with whom he had spent a 
happy winter, started on a surveying expedition to locate the 
boundaries of Lord Fairfax's grant of Virginia land. It was a 
rough, hard experience with rivers, forests, mountains, rain, 
Indians, squatters and mud; but it was satisfactorily completed 
by the twelfth of April. It gave Washington a clear knowledge 
of the Shenandoah valley and the mountains, rivers and lands 
about it, which was of great value to him in after years. Lord 



46 OUR PRESIDEKTS. 

Fairfax procured his apj)ointment as public surveyor, and lie 
spent the next two or three years mostly in the survey of Vir- 
ginia lands. Lord Fairfax took up his residence on the Shenan- 
doah, where Washington often tarried with him for a time on 
his surveying expeditions, and was largely profited by his great 
knowledge and extended acquaintance with the world. 

COMIHG COMPLICATIONS. 

The growing colonies were exciting ambitious schemes in the 
minds of peoples and kings. The great west was full of alluring 
prospects. Empires of land stretched away toward the setting 
sun. Something was known of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers 
and the immense territories they drained. Subjects of the 
French king had seen them and taken possession of them and 
all their tributaries and lands on them, in the name of their 
king. The English claimed that through the "Six Nations" 
they had acquired a right to all this territory. The peojile of 
both nations were full of colonization schemes. Virginia and 
Pennsylvania were interested and excited. It was not far 
to the head waters of the Ohio's tributaries. Their Indian 
traders were already trafficking with the Ohio tribes. Settlers 
were making their way through the passes of the mountains 
and great interest was felt to push the settlements forward. 

Among the many enterprising men who were interested in 
these schemes of wealth and dominion was Lawrence Washing- 
ton. He desired that Virginia should join with Pennsylvania 
and make large settlements on the Ohio under the liberal 
religious policy of Pennsylvania. He said: ''It has ever been 
my opinion, and I hope it ever will be, that restraints on con- 
science are cruel in regard to those on whom they are imposed, 
and injurious to the country imposing them." Then he refers 
to the liberty of conscience enjoyed in Pennsylvania, and the 
restraint put upon conscience in Virginia by its one English 
church, and points to the much more rapid growth of Pennsyl- 
vania. He would have this liberal policy api)lied to the western 
settlements. His enlightened views on this subject were no 
doubt imparted to his younger brother and helped form his 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 41* 

mind for the noble opinions and character which he afterward 
carried into his great career. 

On the north, the French were equally active in pushing 
forward settlements, forts and possession. Both French and 
English were seeking alliance with the Indians, and the already 
disturbed borders indicated a coming clash of arms. In both 
nations, especially in the colonies, preparations were beginning. 
In Virginia the war spirit was aroused; the province was divided 
mto military districts, each district having an adjutant-general 
with the rank of major, and pay of one hundred and fifty 
jiounds a year. Lawrence Washington sought for his brother 
George an apjjointment to one of these offices. This indicates 
the maturity of mind he had already reached to have gained 
such confidence. The appointment was made and preparations 
were begun for a military campaign into the western wilds. 
George i^ut himself under the military drill of the best instruct- 
ors he could get, and Mount Vernon became the scene of 
military preparations and discipline. 

LAWEENCE WASHIJSTGTOISr'S SICKNESS. 

But these preparations were stayed by the ill hefflflWi Law- 
rence Washington. His constitution had never been the firmest, 
and now he was threatened with dangerous pulmona^^ nip- 
toms. By the advice of physicians, it was determined that he 
should spend the next Avinter in the West Indies. It was not 
thought safe for him to go alone, nor did he feel like going 
without his favorite brother George with him, whose strength 
and wisdom he had already begun to lean upon. So the j)repar- 
ations for a military campaign were changed to preparations for 
the journey to the West Indies, The young military leader was 
changed to a fraternal nurse. On the twenty-eighth of Septem- 
ber, 1751, Lawrence and George started on their tour in search 
of health for the invalid. George kept a journal with his usual 
exactness. They reached the West Indies on the third of 
November. Here were new things in the style of life — the 
people and natural productions — which interested George at 
once; but they had been there but two weeks when he was 



4B OUR PRESIDEiTTS. 

taken down with the small-pox, and had himself to be nursed 
by others. Good treatment and nursing carried him through 
with only slight marks left upon his face. 

Lawrence's health not improving, in December George 
returned to Virginia for Lawrence's wife; but as she could not 
go immediately, he returned to his home in the early Spring. 
But nothing could stay the progress of his consuming disease, 
and on the twenty-sixth of July, 1752, he died, at the age of 
thirty-four. Now George, at a little past twenty years of age, 
had lost his father and his brother, who had been father and 
brother in one. Lawrence left by will his estate to his wife and 
daughter, and in case the daughter died without issue, to George 
at the decease of the wife. George was made one of the execu- 
tors. The estate did at last come to George, and is now known 
as the sacred resting place of "The Father of his Country. '' 

A PERILOUS MISSION". 

The difficulties about the western territories increased. The 
French on the north kept pressing forward their forts, settle- 
ments and claims. They sent commissioners among the Indian 
tribes to secure their cooj^eration. They made bold their claim 
to the whole Mississij^pi valley, even to the head waters of all 
the tributaries of the Ohio. The English from Pennsylvania 
and Virginia pressed their claims and sent envoys, traders and 
settlers among the Indians, and quickened their preparations to 
occupy the coveted territories. 

It was needful to know the minds of the Indians, the pur- 
poses of the French, the condition of their forts and settle- 
ments, and what was needful to check their encroachments. 
This knowledge could be got only by a competent ambassador to 
the French commander on Lake Erie. 

Governor Dinwiddle, of Virginia, looked about him for a 
man equal to this delicate and dangerous errand. He must 
meet and treat with Indians, friendly and unfriendly; transact 
business with white men who, while professing friendliness 
would plot his destruction and the defeat of his mission; trav- 
erse a dense forest of six hundred miles, in which were high 



GEORGE AVASttlNGTON. 49 

tnountains, large rivers, morasses, dangerous animals, and more 
dangerous savages who must be used as guides and for supplies. 
It needed great courage, sagacity, skill, tact, strength, health 
and self-sacrifice. Who was equal to such a mission? George 
Washington, a youth of twenty-one years, was suggested as the 
man with the requisite combination of qualities. After due 
consideration he was selected and invited to undertake the jaeril- 
ous mission. The ostensible object was to bear a message of the 
governor of Virginia, in the name of the king of England, to 
the commandant of the fort on French creek, fifteen miles 
south of Lake Erie, and to take back his answer. The real 
object was to reconnoitre the whole country and learn the con- 
dition, purposes and strategy of the enemy with whom they 
were likely soon to come into close conflict. 

Washington undertook the mission, and set out from 
Williamsburg October 30, 1753. He left Wills' creek, Cumber- 
land river, November 15, with Mr. Gist, an intrepid pioneer 
well known among the Indians; John Davidson, an Indian 
interpreter; Jacob Van Braam, a French interpreter, and four 
frontiersmen, two of whom were Indian traders. 

After all sorts of difficulties with Indians, white deserters, 
French duplicity, rain, snow and mud, he reached the French 
fort December 11. 

After much ceremony and parley, he got his reply and 
started on his return. Winter had set in. Tiie streams and 
swamps were full. The French settlers, huntsmen, Indians and 
stragglers, were all made acquainted with the mission. Every- 
Avhere there was plotting to hinder, bewilder and lead astray the 
party. It had grown smaller till it was reduced to Washington, 
Mr. Gist and an Indian guide. The horses had been left and 
the luggage reduced to absolute necessities. Their direct course 
was through an unbroken wilderness of which they knew noth- 
ing. The conduct of the guide became so peculiar that their 
suspicions were awakened. He wanted to carry Washington's 
gun; led them as they believed the wrong way; became churlish; 
pretended that there were inimical Indians in the woods. At 
length, when some fifteen paces ahead, he turned suddenly, 
4 



50 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

leveled his gun at Washington and fired. He missed his mark, 
ran on hastily a few rods behind a large tree and began to 
reload his gun. Finding that neither of them was hurt, they 
went to him and when his gun was reloaded took it from him. 
Mr. Gist wanted to dispatch the Indian at once; but "Washing- 
ton's scruples were too great. Then Mr. Gist said: "We must 
get rid of him;" so pretending still to have confidence in him 
'they sent him to liis cabin, which he said was not far away, 
promising to meet him there in the morning. When he was 
well out of sight they started and traveled all night. By the 
next night they reached the Alleghany river. It was frozen only 
along the shore. Great quantities of broken ice were floating 
in the stream. There was no way to get across but to make a 
raft; and only one poor hatchet for a tool. It was one whole 
day before they got a raft they dared venture upon. When in 
the middle of the stream poling it amid the ice floes as they 
could, a block of ice struck the pole with such force as to knock 
Washington from the raft into the deep stream. He saved him- 
self by catching hold of a raft log. They had to let their raft 
go and get to an island by the help of the float wood, which 
now was near them. Here they spent the night and nearly 
perished with cold. But the cold which came near freezing 
them to death, made a bridge of the floating ice, so that they 
got ofl in the morning, and before night reached the comfortable 
quarters of an Indian trader. On the sixteenth of January 
they returned to Williamsburg. 

Washington's journal of this mission was published and 
spread widely through the colonies and in England. It 
awakened England to the danger before it, and it fixed the eyes 
of all on young Washington as a remarkable youth, of prudence, 
sagacity and resolution far above his years. His admirable 
tact in treating with fickle savages and crafty white men; his 
soldierly eye to the true condition of the country, its exposures 
and defences, and his fortitude and faithfulness, all won for 
liim the confidence and admiration of his countrymen. From 
this time he is a commanding figure in the colonies; the founda- 
tion of his creat name and work is laid. 



GEORGE WAHSINGTON. 61 

AN EXPEDITION TO THE OHIO. 

Washington Avas quick to observe that the fork of the Ohio, 
now the site of Pittsburgh, was the key to the country west and 
north of it, and suggested that it be occupied and well fortified, 
which was speedily done. Governor Dinwiddle made strenuous 
endeavors to raise a body of soldiers for that purpose. Three 
hundred were enlisted and other colonies were asked to share in 
the expedition. Washington was offered the command, but 
declined on account of his youth and inexperience. It was given 
to Colonel Fry, an English officer, who made Washington his 
lieutenant-colonel. 

After great efforts the little army started on its hard march, 
half supplied and half paid, and with almost insurmountable 
obstacles before them. Recruits came in slowly and some of 
them under separate commands. They had not been many days 
out before friendly Indians brought them word that the French 
in strong force, had possession of the fork of the Ohio and were 
building a fort; and were soon to be reinforced by Indians and 
more French. Washington had started with his command in 
advance of Colonel Fry, who was to follow with artillery. With 
infinite trouble with his raw recruits on account of insubordina- 
tion, poor pay, poor rations and supplies, rivers, swamps, defiles 
and mountains, Washington pushed on as fast as possible, 
expecting every day to meet advance parties of the enemy. 
Eeaching a place called Great Meadows, he cleared a field of 
brush, and began a fort. While at this work word came of a 
party of the enemy but a few miles away. With Indian allies 
who had joined him, Washington took such men as could be 
spared from his camp, and started for the enemy hovering about 
him, with a view to surprise them. They soon came upon them 
unawares and a sharp conflict ensued. The French leader, a 
young officer of merit, Jumonville, was killed at the onset. The 
action was short and sharp. The French losing rapidly, gave 
way and ran. They had ten killed and twenty-one taken 
prisoners. This was Washington's first battle He led it in 
front of his men and was in the thickest of it. Bullets whistled 



52 OUIl.PRESIDEN"TS. 

about him, but he was not harmed. He had one killed and 
three wounded. 

Washington's situation was now most perilous. Colonel Fry 
had not yet come with his forces. The French were increasing 
their numbers from the north and from the Indians. They 
were strongly fortified in their fort, and had large scouting par- 
ties all about him. 

Colonel Fry died on the way. More recruits came, some of 
them independents, which proved of little service. But Wash- 
ington pushed on toward the enemy. His hope was to make an 
army road, get recruits from the colonies, allies from the Indians 
and hold the enemy at bay till his own army was large and 
strong enough to take the fort at the fork of the Ohio. But the 
enemy was reinforced faster than he was; better armed and sup- 
plied; met him on the way in great force, and compelled him to 
retreat to Fort Necessity, which he had made as a refuge. There 
he was surrounded with such numbers that he capitulated, but 
marched his army ofE in order, with his stores, leaving only his 
artillery. It was a disastrous attempt to gain possession of the 
Ohio, poorly supplied and supported; but it was a training 
school for a great general. Washington's courage, zeal, forti- 
tude and military capacity were all recognized by the country. 
His conduct was so much above his years that it prepared the 
way for the colonies in their great emergency, years after, to look 
to him to lead their armies. Without this disastrous campaign 
the world might never have had the great General and President 
Washington. This is an instance of defeat working victory of 
another kind. Seldom do we see the Providential hand working 
its great affairs till long after the work is done. 

braddock's campaign. 

England now saw that something vigorous must be done or 
the French would make good their claims in the northwest. So 
a grand army of regulars in the service was sent over under com- 
mand of General Braddock,which was increased by Virginia levies 
to four thousand, to cross the mountains and take Fort Duquesne, 
at the fork of the Ohio, and possess that territory. Washington 



GEOKGE WASHINGTON. 53 

was invited by Braddock to accompany him on liis staff. He had 
resigned his commission, and was attending to his affairs at 
Mount Vernon. His military enthusiasm was enkindled by this 
grand display of England's best troops, such as had never been 
seen before on American soil, and he accepted the invitation 
and volunteered in the service. It was a tiresome, long and 
disheartening journey they had over the mountains and through 
the gorges. Braddock was a trained British officer; believed in 
British order, drill, authority, tactics and success. He would 
march, drill, pitch his tents, call his rolls, picket his camp, 
send forward his scouts, move his artillery, order his battle and 
proceed with it, according to English rule or not at all. He 
despised the Indian allies, the Virginia levies and everything 
not in the king's regular service. He was conceited, vain, 
pompous, self-willed and absolute. He was slow to take advice 
of AVashington, refused to learn of the new circumstances, and 
was sure of victory. The army toiled from April to July on its 
weary drag through the wilderness, only to get a most ignoble 
defeat just before reaching the fort. It was surprised and 
nearly surrounded by French and Indians who, from behind 
trees, logs, stones and knolls, poured into it fearful showers of 
well-aimed bullets, and filled all the region with unearthly 
whoops and yells. The regular British platoons broke like fog 
before a gale and scattered everywhere, fired at random, 
wounded the trees, killed each other, became a mass of panic- 
stricken confusion, and took the back track, leaving everything 
behind them, not having seen their enemy at all. Braddock 
was wounded and died at Great Meadows on his retreat. This 
disastrous campaign and battle have gone into history as "Brad- 
dock's Defeat." The only men under Braddock who did good 
fighting were the despised Virginia levies. They made the best 
of their opportunity, and though terribly thinned, so stunned 
the enemy as to prevent a chase after the retreating army. 

This was another school for Washington. He learned reg- 
ular English warfare, the value of camp order, discipline, drill; 
and learned also that British regulars were a poor match for 
American hunters, woodsmen and levies, in border warfare. 



54 OUlt PRESIDENTS. 

This defeat alarmed the colonies and they put themselves in 
order for defense. Militia companies were raised, military 
equipments procured, money was promptly voted and a small 
home army provided for and officered. Washington was 
appointed commander-in-chief of the Virginia forces. Not- 
withstanding he had been the leader of one disastrous campaign, 
and on the staff of the commanding officer of another, he had 
not lost, but rather gained, popularity. He was the only man 
the people would think of to command their defense of their 
homes. He had been in the thickest danger of two fights and 
had come out unharmed. Eev. Samuel'Davies spoke of him 
at that time, as "that heroic youth. Colonel Washington, whom 
I cannot but hope Providence has hitherto preserved in so signal 
a manner for some important service to his country." 

The next year a great campaign against the French all along 
the line of their defenses, was more successful. On Lake 
Champlain, at Lake George, Oswego and Niagara, British arms 
were successful. Washington, in correspondence with the 
northern commanders, was working up his Virginia forces, 
people and house of burgesses, to join in the final reduction of 
Fort Duquesne. But after laborious preparation and toiling to 
reach it with an army competent to its reduction, it was found 
nearly deserted and was taken without resistance. All hope of 
success had been cut off from the north, and the garrison had 
mostly departed. The next season the war closed and gave 
England Canada and the great west, which a French statesman 
predicted would be a dear possession to England, as her colonies, 
now grown strong, when oppressed with taxation would resist 
it with independence. 

WASHIJSTGTOJSr'S COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE. 

In working up the final expedition against Fort Duquesne it 
became necessary for Washington to go in haste to Williams- 
burg. In crossing the Pamunkey river in a ferry boat, he fell 
in company with a Mr. Chambcrlayne, who lived Jn the neigh- 
borhood, and who in true Virginia hospitality, invited him to 
dine with him. Washington urged the necessity of haste on his 



GEOllGE WASHINGTON. 55 

mission, but was prevailed on at last to accept the invitation. 
Among the company who dined there that day was a young 
widow, Mrs. Martha Custis, daughter of Mr, John Dandridge, 
whose husband had been dead some three years. She was yet 
youthful, small in stature, but well-formed, of a fresh, blooming 
complexion and engaging manners. Washington was the best 
known young man in Virginia — perhaps in America — the 
defender of the colonial homes against the savage Indians, the 
commander-in-chief of the Virginia forces, the intimate friend 
of Lord Fairfax and his brother William and his accomplished 
family — himself the flower of an honored Virginia family, 
wealthy in his own right and already greatly distinguished for 
public services. Mrs. Custis had been well reared, was of a 
good family, accustomed to good society, had been the wife of 
an honorable gentleman who had left her rich, and the mother 
of two children, twice as rich as she. There is every reason for 
supposing that the dinner and the occasion were full of interest 
for them both, and that both were at their best. As it turned 
out, Braddock's army was not taken more by surprise near Fort 
Duquesne, than was the young commander-in-chief of the Vir- 
ginia forces at Mr. Chamberlayne's dinner table. 

When the servant brought the young soldier's horse to the 
door, according to order, he was in no mood for departing. He 
who was in great haste before dinner, was now more than willing 
not to go at all, and ordered his servant to take back the 
horses to the stable. So the afternoon and evening were spent 
in the genial company of his new made friends and the next 
morning he went on his way quite full of other thoughts than 
those which took him to Williamsburg. But he had learned 
that Mrs. Custis' home was not far from Williamsburg, and that 
she would soon be at the "White House," as her home was 
called. 

Military duties pressed, and he had not long to stay at Will- 
iamsburg; but he made the most of his opportunity and before 
he left, the young couj)le had plighted their faith in each other. 
The affairs of the campaign went on as already rehearsed : Fort 
Duquesne was taken, the war ended, pe^ce was restored, and on 



56 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

the sixth of January, 1759, George Washington and Martha 
Custis were married at her home in the good old Virginia way, 
in the midst of a joyous assemblage of mutual friends, to them 
the happiest result of the campaign against the French fort at 
the fork of the Ohio. 

MOUNT VERNON. 

For three months after their marriage the young people lived 
at the White House, her home. While there he took his seat 
in the house of burgesses at Williamsburg. By a vote of the 
house previous to his coming it was agreed to give him a signal 
welcome through an address by the speaker. The speech was 
hearty and eulogistic, and recounted his distinguished services 
to his country. Washington attempted to reply, but only 
blushed, trembled and stammered. "Sit down, Mr. Washing- 
ton," said the speaker; ''your modesty equals your valor, and 
that surpasses any language I possess." 

Mount Vernon, his estate, was on the Potomac river, beauti- 
fully situated on a bluff of land which gave a wide view of the 
river and surrounding country. He described it in a letter to a 
friend thus: "No estate in United America is more pleasantly 
situated. In a high and healthy country; in a latitude between 
the extremes of heat and cold; on one of the finest rivers in the 
world, a river well stocked with various kinds of fish at all 
seasons of the year, and in the spring with shad, herring, 
bass, carp and sturgeon in great abundance. The borders of 
the estate are washed by more than ten miles of tide-water; 
several valuable fisheries appertain to it; the whole shore, in 
fact, is one entire fishery." Here on this rich estate George and 
Martha Washington lived in old Virginia style, with many col- 
ored domestics, in a large house for those times, with many 
outbuildings, in the midst of care, plenty, hospitality, carrying 
on a great business, and having the oversight and conduct of so 
great an agricultural establishment. Among his slaves were 
men of nearly all trades then in use. Almost ever\i;hing needed 
was produced on the estate, and the owner had need to be versed 
in the business of every department. It was Washington's ideal 



GEORGE AVASHINGTON. 57 

of a true manly life. He loved the country, tlie soil, agricul- 
tural pursuits; he loved the independence, isolation, dignity, 
plenty of the planter style of life. After he had taken his 
wife to his home, he wrote to a friend: "I am now, I believe, 
fixed in this seat, with an agreeable partner for life, and I hope 
to find more happiness in retirement than I ever experienced in 
the wide and bustling world." His wife brought him over a 
hundred thousand dollars in money and property, and her two 
children — a boy six and a girl four years of age — double that 
amount to care for; so that his retirement to a private and 
domestic life meant business, care and resijensibility on a large 
scale. The last year of his military service had quite impaired 
his usually robust health, which now rapidly improved. 

Washington was an Englishman, at this time, of the truest 
type, loyal to the king and constitution, customs, laws and 
church of England. There was no country like England; no 
people like Englishmen; no other government so genuine, 
strong and noble. He had much intercourse with England; 
had his agents there to whom he consigned the products of his 
estate and through whom he made purchases. Ships plied 
directly between England and the Potomac river. There was 
considerable travel between Virginia and the home country. 
Many young men were sent to England to be educated, and they 
kept up a fresh importation of English customs, tastes and style 
of life. 

Virginia was the most English at this time of any of the 
colonies, and prided herself on this distinction. She made the 
least departure from the opinions and life of aristocratic 
England. Such homes as Washington's were conducted, as 
much as they could be, as were the wealthier homes of the 
mother country. And the expectation, no doubt, was that more 
and more American society would take the form of English 
society. The war that had been just fought with the French 
and Indians was in part to get more room for the English gov- 
ernment to spread out its people, laws and power. 

But how often are human calculations thwarted. Washing- 
ton, now called to serve in the legislature of his State, in the 



58 OUK PRESIDENTS. 

civil service of his country, began to feel the greed, and injus- 
tice and tyranny of tlie English government. Her laws for the 
colonies were restrictive; often entrenched upon their rights; 
sliiit up their trade to her ships and ports; her governors in the 
colonies often vetoed the most wholesome laws, and, like Brad- 
dock with his regulars, seemed to forget the new circumstances 
of a new people. As he learned of Braddock that the English 
army, conducted on the home system, was an unwieldy, slow 
and expensive thing in an American border warfare; so he 
learned in the civil service that King George and his par- 
liament, and the governors and judges they sent over, were as 
incompetent to conduct the civil .service of America. Little by 
little he was learning England's faults; learning that one people 
cannot legislate for and rule wisely another people far away and 
living under essentially different circumstances. 

Washington was a devoted English churchman, was a vestry- 
man in the church at Alexandria, and also at Poliick, and 
always attended church with his family when the weather favored, 
and, Mr. Irving says, was a communicant. This consecrated his 
devotion to England and its government and order of life. He 
was in the House of Burgesses when questions of difference came 
up with the governor and home government; understood, both 
as a legislator and a business man; how the restrictive navigation 
and trade and anti-manufacturing laws hindered the business 
of the colonies ; heard the arguments ^;/"o and con ; heard the 
vehement and powerful eloquence of Patrick Henry, as he set 
forth the natural rights of men and the injury to those rights in 
the colonies, by the unnatural and oppressive measures of the 
mother country. Notwithstanding his great love of England, 
he could not be blind to her faults. He loved the colonies and 
saw the great prospects before them. His quickest, deepest sym- 
pathies were for humanity. 

In Washington's quiet and careful life at Mount Vernon, he 
studied, as they came up one after another, the great questions 
at issue between the colonies and the king and parliament, and 
his clear judgment favored the colonies all the time. As a 
private citizen he studied the great questions of statecraft ; of 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 59 

natural and colonial rights ; of the English constitution and 
law ; of navigation and commerce; of taxation and rej)resent- 
ation ; of the rights of the people ; as they were discussed by 
the great minds of the colonies and England as they never 
had been before. It was the maturing period of his thoughts 
and principles, which was preparing him for public action on 
that grand scale and in those stirring scenes which made him 
"The father of his country" and one of the world's most illus- 
trious of men. 

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 

It is pleasant to think of great men as natural men; and such 
was Washington. He was intensely interested in human things; 
in human ambitions and pleasures; in human loves and affairs. 
He was careful in his dress; circumspect, j)olite and deferential 
in his manners; prudent in his speech; usually self -governed, 
yet of strong passions; was a good hunter; enjoyed duck-shoot- 
ing; entered heartily into social intercourse; was a good horse- 
man, and took pride in his horses; relished jokes; with all his 
dignity and aristocratic associations, was democratic in his sym- 
pathies. He loved women and children ; was a thoroughly 
domestic man; he loved the stir and show and power of military 
combination and movement; loved the drill, promptness and 
obedience of a good soldier. He was an exact and methodical 
business man ; ]Le])t his accounts with punctilious accuracy ; 
wrote in a clear, round hand ; kept his clothes, books, tools, 
affairs in complete order ; was a good correspondent, warm in 
his friendships, severe in his censures of wrongdoing ; cour- 
ageous, yet prudent; kej)t a diary and preserved much of his 
personal history; was bashful and modest; not given to public 
speech, yet never fell into the mistake that he was not of much 
account ; was a reader of good books ; an accurate observer of 
men and things; was very practical, and of wide and varied 
wisdom; was large-hearted and public-spirited. 

In his full manhood he stood six feet high ; was broad- 
shouldered and full-chested ; was erect, stately ; moved with 
grace and dignity. He was of robust constitution, invigorated 



60 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

by outdoor occnj)ation, rigid temperance eiud orderly habits. 
Few men equaled him in strength and endurance. His hair was 
brown, eyes blue, complexion florid, head round, face full, 
expression calm and serious. 

COMMANDER - IN - CHIEF. 

While "Washington was quietly attending to the affairs at 
Mount Vernon and occupying his seat in the house of bur- 
gesses at its sessions, the disturbed affairs of the colonies moved 
rapidly on from bad to worse to an open rupture with the 
mother country, as related in the first chapter of this book. At 
the suggestion of John Adams, in the general Congress, seconded 
by Samuel Adams, he was nominated and unanimously elected 
commander-in-chief of the army of the united colonies. It was 
an office unsought and undesircd. He accepted it to serve the 
distracted colonies and the suffering people, and with the con • 
viction, as he said to Patrick Henry on the day of his election, 
that "This day will be the commencement of the decline of my 
reputation." He refused all pay, asking only that his expenses 
be provided for. No man in America was more honest and 
earnest in the position the colonies had taken, and he cast all he 
had and was into the cause, believing it would be of little worth 
if the cause was not sustained. 

Mr. Bancroft, in his history of the United States, says: 
" Never in the tide of time has any man lived Avho had in so 
great a degree the almost divine faculty to command the con- 
fidence of his fellow men and rule the willing. Wherever he 
became known, in his family, his neighborhood, his county, his 
native state, the continent, the camp, civil life, the United 
States, among the common people, in foreign courts, through- 
out the civilized world of the human race, and even among the 
savages, he, beyond all other men, had the confidence of his 
kind." 

Washington was elected commander-in-chief on the fifteenth 
of June, 1775. He accepted the office with great diffidence, believ- 
ing himself not equal to its great duties. He started as soon as 
he could set his affairs m orderj not stopping to visit his family 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 61 

at Mount Vernon. He met everywhere on the way tlie acclama- 
tions of the people. Confidence and enthusiasm were inspired 
at once in many who had been distrustful and disheartened. 

On the third day of July, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, under 
an elm tree on the common, attended by great numbers of the best 
citizens, Washington assumed the command of the continental 
army. It was a great day for America; a great day for England 
also, for the liberties of her people were to be preserved and 
developed, as well as of those of the colonies; a great day for 
the world, for Washington's sword was unsheathed for the 
rights of humanity. 

Governor Trumbull, of Connecticut, wrote him: "Be strong, 
and very courageous." Washington replied: "The cause of our 
common country calls us both to an active and dangerous duty; 
Divine Providence, wdiich wisely orders the affairs of men, will 
enable us to discharge it with fidelity and success." 

BOSTON BESIEGED. 

Washington found Boston in the hands of a British army of 
some ten thousand men, well equipped, and supported by ships 
and munitions, under command of General Gage. It was a 
pretentious, self-assured army, confident of an easy victory over 
the rural rebels who had come down from the hills and shut 
them in. Their British conceit had been a little punished by 
the frays at Lexington and Bunker Hill, but a little of the art 
and power of English war, it was expected, would send them 
flying to their hills and homes again. 

About three fifths of the citizens of Boston were remaining 
in their homes, suffering many indignities and deprivations. 

The army which Washington had come to command was a 
mixed multitude, gathered from the shij)S, shops and farms, 
under very little discipline, order, or government. It was 
poorly officered and armed, with but little ammunition and a 
poor prospect of getting supplied. It lacked everything which 
makes an efficient army, but high principles and manly courage; 
but perhaps never so large a body of men in an army knew 
better what they wanted and were resolved to have. It was 



62 OUR PRESIDEISTTS. 

stretched in an irregular semi-circle, a distance of nine miles, 
around Boston from Dorchester to Maiden. Its immediate 
business there was to keep the British lion in the den into which 
he had crept from the sea; its real and ultimate purpose was to 
tell King George and his parliament that the American colonies 
would not pay taxes without representation, nor submit to 
unjust laws. 

Washington immediately set about making this intelligent, 
strong-willed, high-principled rabble into an army; learning the 
exact situation of things in and about Boston, and quickening 
congress and the several colonies to supply the wants and 
increase and make permanent the force of the army. The sum- 
mer and autumn were spent in making the girdle about Boston 
stronger, in hedging up the highways in and out; in sweeping 
the surrounding islands of stock and supplies; in getting horses, 
cattle and supplies back into the country; in entrenching, 
throwing up breastworks, planting batteries, gathering arms, 
ammunition, tents, wagons; in drilling, picketing, skirmishing 
and capturing squads of the enemy. 

This spade and pickaxe warfare by the close of the year had 
planted batteries on all the near heights around Boston, 
guarded with entrenchments all the outlets and waterways, 
built forts where these would best serve the siege operations, 
and made the British lion's palace a prison with short rations 
and a good prospect of none at all in a little while. In the way 
of military glory the British lion had got Lexington and 
Bunker Hill; in the way of luxury and booty it had got a mili- 
tary prison without sujDjDlies. In February, Washington 
entrenched himself strongly on Dorchester Heights, which com- 
manded the city and the harbor. Early in March he was well 
entrenched on Nook's Hill, which commanded Boston Neck. 
And now the roaring lion became a frightened sheep, and took 
to his swift feet and ran into his ships and set sails for the open 
sea. Evacuated, Boston was the proud old city again, and her 
citizens flocked home with great joy. The colonies were glad, 
and praised the Lord, Washington had gained a great victory 
in his first campaign without fighting a battle. 



GEOUGE WASHIKGTOK. 63 

On the twenty-ninth of March both Houses of the Massacliusetts 
Legislature made a joint address of congratuhition to Washington, 
in which they said: "Go on; still go on, approved by heaven, 
revered by all good • men and dreaded by tyrants. May future 
generations, in the peaceful enjoyment of that freedom which 
your sword shall have established, raise the most lasting monu- 
ments to the name of Washington." 

The Continental Congress voted him thanks and a commem- 
orative medal of gold, in reply to which he gave all the credit of 
the great triumph to his soldiers, saying: "They were, indeed, 
at first, a band of undiscipliiied husbandmen — but it is, under 
God, to their bravery and attention to duty, that I am indebted 
for that succcess which has procured me the only reward I wish 
to receive — the afEection and esteem of my countrymen." 

NEW YORK IlSr DANGER. 

Where had the frightened enemy gone? His multitude of 
ships, loaded with his army and all his munitions of war, had 
put out to sea. Where would they land? Washington feared 
that New York was his coveted prey, so the next day he started 
five regiments for the defense of that city, and sent letters and 
swift messengers to awaken Congress, the governor and the people 
to their danger. 

The enemy landed on Staten Island, and soon crossed to Long 
Island. The severe battle of Long Island followed, which was 
disastrous to Washington's too-weak line of defense, and he had 
to fall back into the city, and finally to the higher ground in the 
rear of the city. The many water ways about the city gave the 
enemy opportunity to use his ships and their heavy armament 
against the colonial forces. Now began one of the severest cam- 
paigns of the revolution. Heavy reinforcements had come from 
England, with hired soldiers from the continent. A strong 
army had been sent up the St. Lawrence into Lake Champlain 
and Lake George, to cut its way down to Albany, and so down 
the Hudson to New York, and meet with the army in New 
York, which was expected to break through Washington's 
line and go up the Hudson, thus cutting turbulent New England 



64 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

off from the rest of the colonies. In the meantime Philadel- 
phia and Charleston Avere to be threatened and attacked, if pos- 
sible, to keep the southern colonies busy in their own defense. 
So it was to be war all around. 

Lord Howe, who now commanded the British armies in 
America, was a wary and strategic commander. He was full of 
feints. If he thought to break his way round the east side of 
New York, he would make a great demonstration into New 
Jersey, as though to force his way round west, to draw the 
American forces as far away from his intended course as possible. 
If he purposed to move by land, he would make a great parade 
of ships lading for a sea movement. The whole spring, sum- 
mer and autumn were spent in attempts in different directions, 
skirmishes here and there, pushing for the Hudson at one time, 
up the sound for Newport at another, sending Cornwallis with 
a strong army late in the fall making toward Philadelphia. 
Washington, full of every care, pacifying his disaffected officers, 
struggling to retain his homesick soldiers in the field and to 
recruit his thinning ranks; instruct Congress in the facts and 
needs of the army, and inspire the disheartened colonies, had 
his wary and powerful enemy to watch and head off in every 
direction. By the first of December it became apparent that 
the main body of the British army under Lord Cornwallis 
were aiming at Philadelphia. The British were jubilant. 
Proclamation was made to the people of New Jersey to surren- 
der and accept of pardon or meet the consequences of destruct- 
ive war. Many surrendered; nearly all were dismayed. 

Washington put himself and his small army in front of Corn- 
wallis' jubilant legions and fought them, retreating himself the 
length of the state. He destroyed bridges, hedged up their 
way and hindered them in every way jjossible, all the time urg- 
ing his commanders elsewhere to hurry to his help. He appealed 
to Congress, to Pennsylvania and New Jersey to rally now in 
this darkest hour of freedom's cause. His army was weakening 
every day by the expiration of the term of service. Some of his 
generals were churlish and fretful and did not try to get forward 
to his help. That December was a fearful month to the colonies. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 65 

'''Poor Washington," as some spoke of him, was left largely to 
his own great wisdom and courage. Mr. Bancroft says: "Hope 
and zeal illuminated his grief. His emotions come to us across 
the century like strains from that eternity which repairs all 
losses and rights all wrongs; in his untold sorrows his trust in 
Providence kept up in his heart an undersong of wonderful 
sweetness.^' Congress was alarmed and fled to Baltimore. 
Philadelphia was in a panic and deserted by great numbers. 
Distress was everywhere. The British believed the colonies 
were just about conquered. Yet Washington was firm and was 
making plans for next year's campaign. As he approached the 
Delaware, he secured all the boats up and down the river for 
seventy miles, and prepared for resistance at all the crossings. 
Here he determined to make a stand. Militia were recruited. 
Help came from other sections of the American army. The 
enemy had become confident and careless. 

On the night of the twenty-fifth of December, 1776, Washing- 
ton had arranged to recross the Delaware and attack the enemy at 
three points. The plan was to cross in three places, some miles 
apart, and make the attack in three places simultaneously. 
Washington led the left and uppermost division. The night 
was fearfully cold and stormy. The river was running with 
heavy ice-floes. The lower divisions of the army both failed to 
cross. Washington and his forces, after almost superhuman 
efforts, got across ; marched down several miles to Trenton, 
attacked the British army a little after daylight, won a brilliant 
victory, and sent its scattered remains flying backward toward 
New York. Now the tide was turned. The best skill of the 
enemy was needed to save an utter defeat. He was iDunished in 
many a skirmish and soon learned that the colonies were not 
conquered. So inspiring was Washington's success at Trenton 
and in the movements following, that the colonies were soon 
making ready for another campaign. 

Washington crossing the Delaware has gone into history, 

poetry and painting, as one of the master strokes of military 

courage and genius, by which the world's destinies were grandly 

affected. It is hoped that the readers of this too brief sketch 

5 



66 OUR PRESIDEKTS. 

will read the grand and thrilling accounts given by Mr. Ban- 
croft in his history of the United States, and Mr. Irving in his 
unequaled biography of Washington. Every American should 
be familiar with those stirring times that tried men's souls. 

PHILADELPHIA CAPTURED. 

The campaign of 1777 opened slowly. Burgoyne had received 
command of a large British army to open its way from Lake 
Champlain down to Albany, and so on down the Hudson to 
New York. 

Lord Howe was in New York; with a part of his army in 
New Jersey, a part on Long Island, and a part at Newport. In 
the early summer he made some movements in New Jersey, but 
on the thirteenth of June left that state to return to it no more. 

In July, Lord Howe embarked his whole army on board his 
transports and put out to sea. Washington had no doubt he 
was aiming at Philadelphia. In August, the British fleet 
appeared in ChesajDeake bay and landed with a view to a direct 
march to Philadelphia. Washington was soon before him to 
retard his progress as best he might. The battle of the Brandy- 
wine was soon fought ; but it only checked the progress of the 
enemy. In September, the British army reached and entered 
Philadelphia ; but Washington gained one of his purposes which 
was to hinder Howe from reaching Philadelphia in season to 
form a junction with Burgoyne from the north. He detained 
him thirty days in a march of fifty-four miles. 

Burgoyne had an army of ten thousand troops, well equipped, 
to break his way from Lake Champlain through to Albany and 
down the Hudson. Washington had spared all the men he 
could to oppose Burgoyne. He had weakened his OAvn army to 
make strong that of the north. Burgoyne's success would be a 
fire in the rear, which must not be allowed if it could be pre- 
vented. 

This was one of Washington's most trying times. Several of 
his generals were complaining of him, and plotting either for 
independent commands or to supplant him. Some leading con- 
gressmen, and even John Adams, were severo on his excessive 



GEORGE WASHINGTON". 67 

prudence and disposition to avoid a general battle with Howe. 
Some of the earliest and noblest patriots, like John Dickinson, 
were disheartened. Some said, if we only had some strong 
mind to lead us we could drive the British from our shores. 

Yet the people loved and confided in Washington; and con- 
gress always, in emergencies, gave him full power and asked him 
what the civil arm should do. 

In a few days after Lord Howe entered Philadelphia, and the 
cause of the colonies seemed as dark as it did the year before 
when Washington was flying before Cornwallis in New Jersey. 
General Gates surrounded, fought and captured Burgoyne^s 
army. It was one of the grandest victories of the Eevolution, 
and taught England what the colonists would do with her armies 
when well back in the woods. 

The winter of 1777 and 1778 Washington and his army spent 
at Valley Forge, watching Howe in Philadelphia and suffering 
untold hardships of cold, hunger, nakedness, sickness, short 
pay, neglect and exposure of every kind. Washington himself 
was fearfully harrassed by dissensions among his leading gen- 
erals, intrigue, opposition and faction in and out of congress, 
which threatened more evil to the country than tiie British 
army. It was a terrible winter. But the effect of the capture 
of Burgoyne was doing much for the cause of the colonies in 
Europe. France acknowledged their independence, and formed 
a treaty of alliance with them. England sent commissioners to 
treat for peace with them, but they would not receive them till 
she would withdraw her armies or acknowledge their independ- 
ence. Washington saw clearly the certain triumph of the 
American cause if only the people would hold out and Congress 
and the army officers would work in harmony. His great 
endeavor was to encourage the people, harmonize Congress and 
his officers, secure obedience to his orders and cooperation in his 
measures. Never was great wisdom more tried and a great heart 
more tortured. But slowly and surely he silenced his enemies 
in the camp and in Congress, kept the heart of the people warm 
toward himself and the cause, and won the admiration of the 
watching world. 



68 OUR PRESIDEKTS. 

THE CAMPAIGN OF 1778. 

Lord Howe's ill success lost him the confidence of his gov- 
ernment, and Sir Henry Clinton was appointed to the command 
of the English armies in America. As soon as spring ojaened 
the way he evacuated Philadelphia, sending his ships and stores 
to New York, and marching his army across the Jerseys to join 
all his forces in that city. AVashington was immediately hound- 
ing his slow footstejjs, harrassing his flanks, attacking his 
advance and rear, and preventing him from doing mischief on his 
march. Clinton had not more than got into New York when a 
strong French fleet appeared at the mouth of the Delaware with 
four thousand men to cooperate with the Americans. The rest 
of the summer was spent in forays, attempts and failures, and 
the next winter set in with Clinton's forces scattered along the 
coast from Rhode Island to Florida, and Washington's at stations 
back in the country from Connecticut to Georgia, with the 
French fleet in the West Indies. 

THE CAMPAIGN" OF 1779. 

Washington spent the most of the winter of 1778 and 1779 in 
Philadelphia preparing for the next campaign. It was another 
anxious winter with him. The French army and fleet which had 
come to our help had done us no good, but had created a feeling 
among the peojDle that France was going to fight our battles 
now, and Ave could let the war take care of itself. This feeling 
had lulled the people into Avhat Washington feared was a fatal 
sense of security. The most of the great minds of the earlier 
Congress had left it for posts abroad, in the army, in state affairs 
or private business, so that it had lost much of its former jjower. 
It had dissension and irresolution. The belief had become gen- 
eral that the English people were' becoming tired of fighting 
their own children, and so would soon give it up. Our people 
had suffered much, and while they had no disposition to sur- 
render, they had become indolent in duty to the great cause. 
Many of them had become interested in the state governments 
and had not become accustomed to a double form of government 



GEOKGE WASHIJSTGTON. 69 

and loyalty to both. All these things had created a stupor 
which pained and alarmed Washington. 

Sir Henry Clinton seemed, by his movements all summer, to 
have no general plan in view, but to content himself with doing 
mischief in every direction, in destruction of property, burning 
buildings and spreading desolation. Late in December, he left 
New York with all the ships and trooj^s which could be spared 
from its defense, to attempt the capture of Charleston and the 
submission of South Carolina. 

Washington, during the year, had to .be governed by the 
movements of his wary adversary, and so nothing especially 
decisive was accomplished by this campaign of 1779. The coun- 
try had suffered much by the losses and destructions of the war. 
The productive interests had languished. Food and forage 
were short and dear; .business paralyzed; the currency at a dis- 
count; everything in a state of ferment. The courage of many 
was faltering; many who began the war with zeal had grown 
half indifferent; yet Washington's high courage was steadfast, 
and though he did not know it, he was building the monuments 
of his world-wide fame higher and higher. It was this year 
that he received men of high standing from France and treated 
them with the greatest consideration, though his dinner was the 
plainest and simplest that could be served. When ladies dined 
with him he was especially polite and considerate, no matter 
how little he had to offer them. While the British officers were 
supplied with every luxury and spent their winters in riotous 
luxury and indolence, the Americans were often nearly destitute 
of the common comforts. Severe indeed' were the hardships of 
the men who won the independence of America. 

The winter of 1779 and 1780 was spent at MorristoAvn; a fear- 
fully cold and suffering winter. Washington's army, perishing 
with cold and hunger, could be kept together only by enforcing 
food from the counties as a military necessity. To add to the 
horrors of the winter, Sir Henry Clinton took his fleet, with 
several thousand men, to Charleston and forced a capitulation 
of that city, and as he believed, the conquest of South Carolina. 
In the mean time, the army left in New York made raids into 



70 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

New Jersey, and an attempt on Morristown, when Washington 
and a part of his army were absent toward the Hudson. In 
these raids villages, farm houses and churches were destroyed. 
In June, Sir Henry Clinton returned with his ships and as 
much of his army as he dared take from Charleston to New 
York. But before this, Lafayette had returned from France 
and privately informed Washington that a fleet and army were 
on the way from France to help. 

THE CAMPAIGN OF 1780. 

The summer of 1780 opened with difficulties of every kind 
increased. The American army was small and scattered; the 
currency had sunk more than sixty per cent in value; General 
Arnold had fallen into difficulties which threatened his further 
usefulness; General Greene, Washington's most trusted and 
efficient general, had incurred the displeasure of congress and 
nearly lost his commission; Georgia and South Carolina were 
under British dominance; New Jersey had been swept over by 
the opposing armies and the people everywhere were worn 
and weary with the destructive war. Besides these troubles, 
every community had more or less tories, who were aiding the 
enemy in every possible way. Yet, at the bottom, people, army 
and officers, except the tories, were for fighting and sulfering on. 

On the tenth of July a French fleet of seven ships of the 
line, two frigates, with bombs and transports and five thousand 
men, landed at Newport. This helj^ in a time of need brought 
the promise of more. But on the thirteenth came reinforce- 
ments to the British. General Gates was appointed to the 
command of the southern department of the American forces, 
and began with such confidence as to lead a strong force into 
the very embrace of the enemy and bring on a great disaster. 
Washington had but just heard of tiiis, when Major Andre, the 
British spy, was caught with the evidence of Arnold's treason on 
his person. *'Whom can we trust?" was Washington's first 
remark on receiving the intelligence. Troubles thickened on 
every side. But he immediately fortified West Point, which 
Arnold had attempted to sell to the enemy, and put General 



GEORGE WASHIJSTGTOX. 71 

Greene, his most trusted officer, in its command with a strong 
force. By a kind of rigid Justice, grateful to every American, 
West Point has become the seat of the national school for 
training the defenders of American nationality and liberty; 
while Arnold's name is coupled with that of Judas. 

The season closed with skirmishes north and south, and 
with many intimations that the British commander inclined to 
carry the war more forcibly into the south; as Georgia and South 
Carolina had not offered so much resistance as the northern 
states. Nothing marked was done in this campaign. 

THE CAMPAIG]Sr OF 1781. 

The sufferings of the army were so severe this winter, that 
there were several mutinies, and on one occasion quite a body of 
soldiers organized to march to Philadelphia and compel Congress 
to supply their wants and make sure their pay. This was a new 
trouble. 

But the invasion of the Carolinas by Cornwallis aroused the 
people ; and Sumpter, Marion and Morgan gathered the militia 
to the help of Greene, who had now been appointed to the com- 
mand of the American army in the south. The invaders were 
severely punished. The tide of the conflict was various, but the 
British were the greater losers. The tories did not render them 
the help they expected, while the resistance was greater than 
they had provided for. They found that the open country in 
the south was scarcely more hospitable to them than in the 
north; and that nowhere in America were they safe out of the 
reach of their protecting ships of war. 

The tide of war now set rapidly southward, as Washington 
expected it would. Both the British and the French fleets went 
to the Chesapeake bay and came into a sharp conflict which 
injured both; but gave neither a victory. Washington had sent 
Lafayette south with all the force he could spare. Lafayette 
had charge of the forces in Virginia, which were managed with 
great Judgment and skill, according to Washington's plan of 
avoiding battles only when sure of favorable results. Greene 



72 OUE PKESIDENTS. 

commanded in the Carolinas and Georgia, on the same ]3lan and 
with excellent results. 

In July, Washington led all the forces he could spare from 
before New York, and the French forces also, toward Virginia, 
with a view to the capture of Cornwallis and his army, now at 
Yorktown. Their passage through Philadelphia was hailed 
by the people with great enthusiasm. The French army, 
neatly uniformed, well drilled, officered and supplied Avith 
bands of music and rich flags, made an aj)pearance dazzling to 
American eyes. 

About the first of September, Count De Grasse came into the 
Chesapeake with heavy reinforcements of war ships and land 
forces. In conjunction with these, it was Washington's plan 
to make Yojktown a coop for Cornwallis. Forces Avere march- 
ing from every quarter with the greatest speed. The French 
army from Newport ; the new French forces landed from De 
Grasse's fleet ; Washington with all he could rally from New 
York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey; Lafayette with his forces; 
the governor of Virginia with such militia as he could muster; 
were all hurrying toward Yorktown, Avhile the fleet waited at 
the mouth of York river. Greene was left to tlireaten Charles- 
ton and hold the attention of the British in that region. 

Early in October the great girdle began to draw around 
Cornwallis. He expected naval help from New York, but 
he did not see his danger soon enough to get it. His 
only resource was to entrench and defend. All Washing- 
ton's plans carried. Armies from afar reached Virginia in 
time. The French fleet was but a few days behind the antici- 
pated time for its arrival. The Virginia militia were gathered 
in season. Cornwallis had chosen a favorable spot for Wash- 
ington at this oi3]3ortune moment. Providence seemed helping 
the Americans in the fortunate combination of circumstances. 
When Cornwallis saw his danger he attempted a night escape 
across the York river, but a fierce storm scattered his boats 
and defeated the attempt. Officers and soldiers of all arms of 
the service were of one mind and worked witli one will. All saw 
that the wary Cornwallis ivas cooped in a place of his own selec- 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 73 

tion, and only some strange chance of war could save him. 
Enthusiasm such as our poor soldiers had never known fired 
their hearts. Every man felt himself freedom's king. They 
made short work with their wily foe, whom they had got at last 
at a great disadvantage. They saw Washington's prudent plan 
of warfare ripening at last in a great and almost bloodless vic- 
tory. Cannon from every quarter played upon the enemy's 
works and beat them down. The spade and pick opened a safe 
way to a close encounter with the caged lion. Seeing his certain 
fate, he surrendered, and in due time marched out into an open 
field and laid down his arms. This unequaled victory was the 
great ripe fruit of all their sufferings. It enheartened the whole 
country and gave it name and credit abroad. The Avhole Avorld 
was watching this American conflict. If the new nation main- 
tained its independence, a new era was to open to mankind. The 
nineteenth of October, 1781, which brought Cornwallis' sur- 
render, made sure this opening futixre. 

Washington visited Mount Vernon, and after a few days 
repaired to Philadelphia where he spent the Avinter months of 
1781 and 1782 with Congress, counseling in relation to both the 
civil and military affairs of the country. The army's suffering 
condition bore heavily on his generous heart. 

A treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United 
States was signed at Paris, January 21, 1783. A letter from 
Lafayette to Congress, bearing the intelligence, reached that body 
March 23. Sir Guy Carlton informed Washington a few days 
after that he was ordered to proclaim a cessation of hostilities 
by land and sea. On the seventeenth of Apj-il Washington 
made a similar proclamation to his army by order of Congress. 

On the eighteenth of the following October Congress dis- 
charged the army, many of whom had already gone to their 
homes on furloughs. 

On the second of November Washington made his farewell 
address to the soldiers who had won the independence of 
America. 

Thus closed the great Eevolutionary War, the most important 
g,nd Justifiable of any that the world had then known; as import- 



74 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

ant, perhaps, in securing the liberties of the English as the 
American people. Now that it is so far in the past, all true 
men can unite in tributes of praise and honor to the people who 
so nobly sacrificed for their convictions; and to Washington, 
their great leader, who, under Providence, became truly the 
" Father of their country," and, perhaps, the most fortunate 
and truly great man, taken all in all, in the history of the 
world. 

LIFE AT MOUKT VERNON". 

Washington now retired to Mount Vernon to take up again 
those rural pursuits so congenial to his retiring and domestic 
nature. He at once set about improving his estate, embellish- 
ing his home and its surrounding and reviving his former pleas- 
ures and associations. But he could not forget the country he 
had helped to bring into being. His wide acquaintance with the 
resources of the country and its great possibilities, and his inti- 
mate knowledge of the people^ filled his mind with speculations 
on the settlement of the wilderness, the means of land and 
water communication with the fruitful regions which he saw 
must soon be settled. His correspondence and his conversation 
with visitors were filled with these thoughts, which reached far 
away from Mount Vernon. 

In December, 1784, he was invited to Annapolis, by the Vir- 
ginia Assembly, to consider with other public spirited gentle- 
men, the best ways of improving inland navigation. The meet- 
ing resulted in the formation of two navigation companies, for 
ojiening the navigation of the Potomac and James rivers, under 
the cooperation of the assemblies of Virginia and Maryland. 
He was made president of both. It was a part of the plan to 
open a communication with western waters and facilitate the 
movements of settlements into those inviting regions. The 
Assembly of Virginia^ as a mark of respect and in recognition of 
his great services given without remuneration to the country, 
voted one hundred and fifty shares in these companies as a gift 
to General Washington. This generous proposal puzzled and 
troubled him. It was one of his settled purposes not to accept 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 75 

public gifts, because of their tendency to swerve the private 
judgment and put one under purchased obligation to the public. 
He had given eight years of the best of his life to fight for per- 
sonal freedom, and now he would not accept a gift which might 
in any way act as a bribe upon that freedom; and yet he did not 
desire to seem not to appreciate the generous sentiments of his 
fellow-citizens. After much consideration he concluded to 
accept the gift, if the assembly would allow him to hold it in 
trust for some public institution. Later in life he applied it to 
public education. 

It is the testimony of those who knew much of him that his 
character in private life was as free from guile and blemish as in 
public positions. His secretary, Mr. Lear, after two years 
resideuce in his family on very intimate relations, says: "Gen- 
eral Washington, is, I believe, almost the only man of an exalted 
character, who does not lose some part of his respectability by 
an intimate acquaintance. I have never found a single thing 
that could lessen my respect for him. A complete knowledge 
of his honesty, uprightness and candor in all his private trans- 
actions, has sometimes led me to think he was more than a man." 

Bishop White says of him: "I know no man so carefully 
guarded against the discoursing of himself or of his acts, or of 
anything that pertained to him, and it has occasionally occurred 
to me when in has company, that if a stranger to his person 
were present, he would never have known from anything said 
by him that he was conscious of having distinguished himself 
in the eye of the world." His wife's grandchild who lived in his 
family. Miss Custis, has written of him: "He spoke little, gen- 
erally ; never of himself. I never heard him relate a single act 
of his life during the war." 

He was social, fond of company, of children and youth ; 
loved their laughter and gaiety; laughed himself sometimes 
immoderately; yet was usually calm and benignant. His friend- 
ships were very strong. Many of his companions in arms 
became very dear to him; General Greene, Lafayette and Ham- 
ilton in particular. To his early friendships he was always 
steadfast. The little excellencies of spirit and conduct, like the 



76 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

little touches of the painter's brush, gave the last and delicate 
finish to the solid and grand character which made him the 
wonderful man he was. 

THE CONFEDERATION AND THE CONSTITUTION. 

When Washington returned from the army to Mount Vernon, 
he went to sjDend the rest of his life in retirement. But the 
troubles of the country he had called into being would not let 
him rest. The debts incurred in the war; the settlement of 
claims and differences; the need of money that could not be fur- 
nished, of laws that in many places would not be accepted, of 
authority with force behind it; the general distraction, and in 
some places actual rebellion, convinced him that the confedera- 
tion of the states under which the war had been fought out, was 
but a rope of sand. He saw, and urged in letters and in private 
conversation, the need of a strong central government, a league 
of all the people which should be a power over the states, which 
should make a nation in which the states should exist as local 
bodies. With these thoughts in his mind, he read much of the 
ancient republics and of those nations which had existed with- 
out kings. He made known his views all over the Union in 
correspondence with the leading minds. He wrote: "I have 
ever been a friend to adequate powers in Congress, without 
which it is evident to me we shall never establish a national 
character, or be considered as on a respectable footing by the 
powers of Europe. We are either a united people under one 
head for federal purposes, or we are thirteen independent sov- 
ereignties eternally counteracting each other. If the former, 
what ever such a majority of the states as the constitution 
points out conceives to be for the benefit of the whole, should, 
in my humble opinion, be submitted to by the minority. / can 
see no evil (jr eater than disunion." Again he writes: "I do 
not conceive we can exist long as a nation without lodging 
somewhere a power which will pervade the whole Union in as 
energetic a manner as the authority of the state governments 
extends over the several states. To be fearful of investing Con- 
gress, constituted as that body is, with ample authorities for 



GEORGE Washington. 77 

national purposes, appears to me the very climax of popular 
absurdity and madness." 

The peojDle were drifting into anarchy. The states were sel- 
fish and jealous. Washington felt that they were rejecting his 
counsel, solemnly given in his farewell address to the soldiers 
and peoj)le. He was alarmed and troubled and asked, "What, 
then, is to be done? Things cannot go on in this strain forever." 
There are many letters extant, written about this time, full of 
the sorrow of his great heart and the fear that the war had been 
in vain. He did not dream it, though these letters, and a plan 
of federate organization started at Mount Vernon by the com- 
missioners appointed by the assemblies of Maryland and Vir- 
ginia, the year before, had given hints of the remedy needed 
for the prevailing disasters and dangers. These great matters 
were being considered in the state assemblies and resulted in a 
proposition for a convention of delegates from all the states, to 
meet in Philadelphia, for the purpose of revising and correcting 
the federal system; the action of the convention to be reported 
to congress and the state legislatures for their approval. 

Washington was put at the head of the Virginia delegation. 
The convention was appointed for the second Monday in May, 
1786; but enough delegates to form a quorum did not get 
there till the twenty-fifth. Washington was unanimously 
elected president of the convention. The convention con- 
tinued in session four months. It was a great deliberative 
body. It came together thoroughly alarmed for the safety of 
the new country. It worked in earnest and with a will, and 
produced the great constitution under which the United States 
have become a great country and lived a hundred years — the 
greatest compend of deliberative wisdom, perhaps, which has 
been produced in this world. 

The constitution was sent to Congress, and by that body to the 
state legislatures, which appointed state conventions to consider 
it. It must be accepted by nine before it became the funda- 
mental law of the land. On the thirteenth of September, 1788, 
Congress, the constitution having been ratified by a sufficient 
number of states, appointed the first Wednesday in January, 



78 OUR PRESIDEKTS. 

1789, for the people of the United States to choose electors of a 
president, and the first Wednesday in February for the electors 
to meet and make a choice. The meeting of the goYernment 
was to be on the first Wednesday in March following in New 
York city. 

Concerning it, Washington wrote to a friend: "We may, with 
a kind of pious and grateful exultation, trace the finger of 
Providence through those dark and mysterious events which 
first induced the states to appoint a general convention, and 
then led them, one after another, by such steps as were best cal- 
culated to elfect the object, into the adoption of the system 
recommended by the general convention ; thereby, in all human 
probability, laying a lasting foundation for tranquility and hap- 
piness, when we had too much reason to fear that confusion and 
misery were coming rapidly upon us.'' 

WASHINGTON ELECTED PRESIDENT. 

As the time for the meeting of the electors drew nigh Wash- 
ington's personal friends became satisfied that he would be 
elected the first president of the United States, and so informed 
him in their letters. It was painful to him to think of re-enter- 
ing public life. He loved agricultural pursuits, and craved a 
peaceful afternoon of life on his estate. His letters at this time 
are full of anxiety and fear, lest he should be elected. He 
dreaded the weight of care attending such an untried position, 
and feared the loss of his good reputation. When he was 
elected commander-in-chief he thought his reputation would 
decline from that day; so now he feared his evil day would 
begin with this new position. 

In a letter to Lafayette, after expressing his extreme reluc- 
tance in accepting the place and his diffidence in his own 
capacity to fill it properly, he says: "If I know my own heart, 
nothing short of a conviction of duty will induce me again to 
take an active part in public affairs ; and in that case, if I can 
form a plan for my own conduct, my endeavors shall be unre- 
mittingly exerted, even at the hazard of my former fame and 
present popularity, to extricate my country from the embarrass- 



GEORGE WASHINGTOK. 'J'9 

ments in which it is entangled through want of credit ; and to 
establish a general system of policy which, if pursued, will 
ensure permanent felicity to the commonwealth. I think I see 
a path clear and direct as a ray of light which leads to the 
attainment of that object. Nothing but harmony, honesty, 
industry and frugality are necessary to make us a great and 
happy people. Hupjaily the present posture of affairs and the 
prevailing disposition of my countrymen, promise to cooperate 
in establishing those four great essential pillars of public 
felicity." 

His fruitful mind at once formed plans and provided ways 
to national prosperity. 

In due time he was elected; and on the sixteenth of April, 
1789, started for New York to assume his high office. At once 
his course began to be an ovation. Meetings, speeches, masses 
of the people, music, cannon, bells, triumphal arches, soldiers, 
citizens, women, girls, children, met him everywhere, in every 
possible expression of gratitude, honor and joy. Over the 
places where he had fought and toiled and suffered, he now went 
amid the huzzas and shouts of the whole population. Each 
place seemed to have some new device to express the people's 
love and joy. It was one long way of triumphal popular joy, 
from Mount Vernon to New York, such as king never knew and 
no other human being ever experienced. It humbled, subdued, 
saddened, overcame him. He felt himself unworthy of it, 
feared it could not last, dreaded the danger of mistake which 
might break the spell of this tumultuous congratulation, and 
bring harm to his now happy country. 

After he had reached New York, and all was ready for his 
inauguration in the presence of a vast multitude of people, 
when he moved forward to take the oath of office, he was so 
overcome as to be unable to stand, and stepped back to a chair 
and sat down for a few moments to recover strength. A breath- 
less silence prevailed. Not a word was spoken. All seemed to 
know that the great bosom was overshaken with inward tumult. 
After a few moments he rose and went forward. The secretary 
of the senate held up the bible and Washington laid his hand 



80 OUR PRESibENfS. 

upon it. The chancellor of New York read the oath of office 
to him; he responded: "I swear — so heli^ me God/' bowed rev- 
erently and kissed the bible. The chancellor then stepped for- 
ward, waved his hand and exclaimed: "Long live George Wash- 
ington, President of the United States!" At this moment a 
flag swung from the cupola, the bells in all the city sent out 
their clangor, and the cannon in all the forts and ships pealed 
their thunderous joy while the people joined in long and 
rapturous shouts. 

Bowing to the people, he went into the senate chamber and 
delivered his inaugural address. After this he, with the whole 
assembly, went on foot to St. Paul's church, where prayers were 
read by Bishop Prevost, of the Episcopal church. 

Through it all he was deeply stirred and inexpressibly 
anxious lest he might fail to do what was expected of him, and 
turn this whirlwind of praise into a storm of reproach. How 
little did he foresee that his future course was to be as fortunate 
as his past, and that this beginning of praise was to go on 
increasing with the ages. 

WASHIKGTOISr'S ADMINISTRATIOIT. 

Nothing could be conceived more difficult than Washington's 
new position. He had been made jDresident of a government 
yet to be organized and that government new in the world, 
having not even an ideal in any one's mind. What sort of a 
court should it have? What formalities and dignities should it 
assume? How near the people and how far away should the 
president be? Should he be approached only through a line of 
officials as were the rulers of Europe, or should he be oj^en as 
any citizen to the people? After his inauguration everybody 
wanted to see him and counsel him. The first week's experience 
taught him that his privacy must be guarded in some way or he 
could do no business. Then what about the social life of this 
republican court? There was no model for it in the world. 
Franklin, Adams and Jefferson had represented the colonies at 
foreign courts, but they could not outline a republican court. 
All Washington's intimate friends had suggestions. Adams 



GEORGE WASHIXGTOK'. 81 

and Hamilton inclined to much imitation of royalty to secure 
the respect of foreign courts and people; as well as our own 
people who had always profoundly respected the English royalty 
and its form of government. Others leaned to almost no 
formalities. 

The constitution provided for the different departments of 
the government; these must be provided with official heads and 
so set to work as Iiot to hinder each other; and all must work in 
harmony. 

A currency must be provided for the business of the country; 
the debts of the Avar must be paid, and there was nothing to pay 
them with; domestic and foreign credit must be secured; a 
system of taxation provided; differences between the states 
settled ; international intercourse provided for; and postal, 
judicial, military and naval affairs arranged. Indeed, there was 
no end to the new things to be done. It is wonderfully interest- 
ing to read of the details of Washington's new work and of the 
skill and wisdom with which he put together the scattered 
materials for this new government. There seemed to be every 
possible conflict of opinion to settle, and everything to be made 
anew from raw materials, to set up this wonderful machine — a 
republican government. But Washington led in this new and 
difficult work with a marvelous capacity for invention and 
adjustment. 

People now, who only hear Washington's praises, can scarcely 
comprehend his trials. His cabinet was divided, and at length 
so divided as to break up. Thomas Jefferson, his secretary of 
state, had been much in France and become strongly interested 
in the revolution going on there. He sympathized with the 
radical element in opposition to the throne and its adherents. 
He favored the Jacobin clubs and excused the bloody excesses of 
the reign of terror, and favored the formation of similar societies 
in America. He, therefore, favored the most popular and radical 
measures in the administration of our government and opposed 
the more conservative which aimed at solidity and stability. 
Alexander Hamilton, his secretary of the treasury, on the con- 
trary, feared the fury and passion of the French mobs, as the 
6 



82 OUR PllESIDENTS. 

excited masses looked to him, and favored a government in 
America which should avoid all popular extremes, and be well 
ballasted with the weight of the well-tried and conservative prin- 
ciples of the British constitution. The throne and all its 
appendages, of course, were set aside by our constitution, and he 
hated them as did the American people, but there remained the 
essential form of the English government in our executive, 
legislative and judiciary departments which he wished to carry 
into harmonious and stable operation. 

Washington was devoted to both of these men, and both 
were devoted to him. They each had a wide following in the 
country, and became the head of a party. Washington was non- 
partisan and sought to administer the government in the inter- 
est of the whole country, and in fidelity to the principles of the 
American revolution which had been incorporated in the consti- 
tution. In doing this he was often assailed by both parties, and 
bitterly assailed by the French party, who were coming more 
and more to hate everything English and love everything 
French. 

The fact that the French had helped us in the revolution 
won the popular heart of America, which did not stop to weigh 
well the passion and recklessness and want of wisdom and prin- 
ciple which led on the French revolution. Indeed many 
thought the French revolution was the American revolution 
over again, whereas there was but little similarity between them. 
And yet the French revolution shook the new American gov- 
ernment to its center, and had it not been for the strong hand at 
the helm it would have gone to pieces and been as short-lived and 
disastrous as was the French republic. A rebellion was started 
in western Pennsylvania. "The factious and turbulent opposi- 
tion to the collection of duties on spirituous liquors," as Wash- 
ington called it, was the occasion of this outbreak, but it was 
really promoted by the French sympathies and the "democrat 
clubs," in imitation of the "Jacobin clubs" which were formed 
all over the country. These clubs gave Washington immense 
trouble, for they promoted the dissenting, querulous, rebellious 



GEORGE WASHIKGTOK. 83 

spirit against his administration and the unmeasured abuse that 
was heaped upon him by their papers and public speakers. 

The French republic soon got itself into a war with England. 
Then it demanded that the United States should join it in that 
war, because France had helped the colonies to get their liber- 
ties. The French sympathizers, who had already done so much 
to paralyze AVashington's government and abuse him, now 
sought to revive the old hatred of England and force America 
to join France in the bloody conflict. It required all Washing- 
ton's sagacity and moderation to avoid this wreck of his new 
nation, and when he secured a treaty of peace and intercourse with 
England through Mr. Jay, the very best that could be got for this 
country, and which resulted in immense and permanent benefit, 
he was more violently abused than ever before, even the House 
of Eepresentatives unconstitutionally and insultingly demanding 
his reasons for signing the treaty. 

There was from the beginning much difference between the 
northern and southern states in their business and social life. 
It was with difficulty that this difference could be adjusted in 
the constitution. Slavery was dominant in the south, and grew 
more so. It waned in the north, and soon departed. The south 
inclined to looser and less scrupulous exactness in morals and 
social life, and to less devotion to business. The north was 
exacting, organizing, thrifty and more devoted to constituted 
forms and the instituted customs of society, and hence moved 
more in masses, more by the rules of combination and law. 

This general difference soon developed a prevailing sympathy 
with Jefferson and his free views in the south, while m the 
north the more conservative views of Hamilton, who was anx- 
ious that the government should be strong and united — a firm 
nationality — a power to be feared and honored, prevailed. In 
the south this free spirit which magnified the individual and 
the state at the expense of the nation soon showed itself in 
individuals and also in states, and developed a disloyal and arro- 
gant notion of individual and state rights. The nation was 
never so much prized in the south as in the north, simply 
because the individual and the state were more prized. In the 



84 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

soutli individual and state rights were supposed to be dominant 
in the American idea. In the north the nation and its rights 
were supposed to be dominant in the American idea. In the 
north Hamilton's teachings have prevailed ; in the south, Jeff- 
erson's. At last, after more than a hundred years of jar and 
conflict, the north and south are likely to come to a better 
understanding and thoroaghly resj)ect the individual and at the 
same time magnify the nation. 

In the second administration of Washington the sjoirit of 
this difference was rampant, fanned into a flame by French 
zealots and radicals and made more demonstrative by hatred of 
British tyranny, which it was restrained by Washington's strong 
and wise hand from fighting. Grandly now does Washington's 
commanding figure rise up against the black and fierce cloud 
of those early and troublous times. 

When Washington made his final address to Congress, 
December 5, 1796, the Senate heartily approved it ; but in the 
House there was dissension. Mr. Giles, of Virginia, made a 
strong speech against approval, .and when the vote came to be 
taken twelve names were recorded against it and stand there 
yet, among them the name of Andrew Jackson, then a young 
man of twenty-nine years of age, just admitted from the new 
state of Tennessee. 

Washington's death. 

At the close of his second term as president, March 3, 1797, 
Washington repaired to Mount Vernon, grateful for his release 
from public duty. John Adams was his successor, who very 
soon found himself threatened with a war with the French 
republic, and he looked at once to Washington to lead it, should 
it be forced upon the country. He had had but a few month's 
peace when this war cloud rose in the east. He at once 
set about the plans for organizing an army, but before the set- 
tlement of the difficulties he died from the effects of a severe 
cold, on the night of the fourteenth of December, 1799, in the 
sixty-eighth year of his age. 



GEOKGE WASHINGTON. 85 

Thus closed unexpectedly the earthly life of one of the great- 
est and best of men, who, while he was subject to all human 
frailties, was not brilliant or specially endowed with any marked 
power above many, was yet one of the greatest men that has ever 
lived in the soundness of his judgment, strength of his fortitude, 
self-control, patience and persistence under difficulties, and in 
the power to combine and control great affairs and great bodies 
of men and bear them on to a triumphant issue of great and 
good purposes. Jefferson said of him: ''His integrity was most 
pure; his justice the most inflexible I have ever known, — no 
motives of interest or consanguinity, of friendship or hatred, 
being able to bias his decision. He was in every sense of the 
word, a wise, a good and a great man." 

Adams, in his inaugural address, spoke of him as one " who 
by a long course of great actions, regulated by prudence, justice, 
temperance and fortitude, had merited the gratitude of his fellow 
citizens, commanded the highest praises of foreign nations and 
secured immortal glory with posterity." 



IhE i.RAVE OF i.EORGE WASHINGTON. 

The sacred enclosure which holds the dust of Greorge Wash- 
ington is at Mount Vernon, near the mansion in which he lived 
and died, and which has now become a shrine visited, probably, 
by more people than the resting place of any other mortal man. 
It is on the west bank of the Potomac river, seventeen miles 
below Washington. The mansion and tomb are some two 
hundred feet above the river and afford a fine outlook over 
water and land. 

The original Washington estate was eight thousand acres. 
In 1856 the state of Virginia passed an act authorizing the pur- 
chase of Mount Vernon by the ladies of the Mount Vernon 
Association. The ladies purchased two hundred acres, for which 
they paid two hundred thousand dollars, since which great 
improvements for preserving and beautifying the place have 



86 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

been made. The worn and decayed parts of the buildings have 
been renewed ; the grounds are being made more beautiful 
every year. 

Mr. Lossing has dedicated his book entitled " The Home of 
Washington": 

TO HIS 

PATRIOTIC COUNTRYWOMEN, 

BY WHOSE EFFORTS 

THE HOME AND TOMB OF WASHINGTON 

HAVE BEEN 
RESCUED FROM DECAY. 

The tomb of Washington is in a quiet, secluded place, but a 
short distance from the mansion. It is made of brick according 
to his will, though it was not made till thirty-eight years after 
his death. Till then his body rested in the old tomb. The 
new tomb is in a small ravine coming down from a well-wooded 
hillside. The place abounds with sweet-briar, trailing arbutus 
and other flowers. 

The front of the tomb is plain, with wide, arching gate- 
way and double iron gates, above which, upon a plain marble 
slab, is this inscription: 

IVVVVWWWWVWVWWWWW^VWWWVWWWWW 

\ WITHIN THIS ENCLOSURE j 

— I 



The ante-room in which are the sarcajihagi, which hold the 
remains of George and Martha Washington, is about twelve feet 
square. Behind this room is the vault in which repose the 
remains of about thirty members of the family. For a time, 
through fear of disturbance, the sarcophagi were kept in the 
yault ; but on the seventh of October, 1837, they were placed 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 87 

where they now rest, in the ante-room, the vault closed and 
locked and the key thrown into the river. 

The right-hand sarcaphagus, as seen from the gate, holds the 
remains of the '^ Father of his Country"; the one on the left, 
those of his wife. 

On a tablet over the door of the tomb, are these words of the 
Great Teache*^: 



i "I am the resurrection mid the life. ^ 
5 He that helieveth in 7ne, \ 

<l though he luere dead, yet shall he live.'' I 



The sarcophagus of Mrs. "Washington is Avithout ornament 
or symbol; and has on it these words : 

aiililii'lilililllllllllllilllililililililililililllilllllililllllil!lilililillllliiilililllililiiiiiiiiiB 

I Consort of Washington, | 

I Died May 21sT, 1801; Aged 71 Years. | 

Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiilililililililililiiiiiiiiiiiiiliiiiiiilililililililililillllllliliiiiiiiiiiiiiim 

The sarcophagus of Washington is ornamented with the 
United States coat of arms upon a draped flag. 
It has this one word on it : 

WtnsMuQtom 

Near the entrance to the vault are four white marble monu- 
ments with inscriptions commemorating the lives and deaths of 
the members of the family whose forms rest there. 

Everything is being done, and will continue to be done, to 
make Mount Vernon and its sacred tomb one of the most 
marked and hallowed mausoleums in the world. Its great 
sleeper there is a mighty magnet drawing all the world rever- 
ently to his resting place. 



88 OUE PKESIDENTS. 

In 1833, Dr. Andrew Eeed, an English philanthropist, wrote 
at the grave of Washington, this tribute to his memory, and 
left it in the family : 

WASHINGTON, 

The Brave, The Wise, The Good ; 

WASHINGTON, • 

Supreme in War, in Council and in Peace ; 

WASHINGTON, 

Valiant Discreet Confident 

without ' without without 

Ambition ; Fear ; Presumption ; 

WASHINGTON, 

In Disaster, Calm ; in Success, Moderate ; in All, Himself ; 

WASHINGTON, 

The Hero, the Patriot, the Christian ; 

The Father of Nations, the Friend of Mankind ; 

who 

When he had Won all, Renounced all 

and sought 

In the Bosom of his Family and Nature, 

Retirement, 

And in the Hope of Religion, 

Immortality. 






Mm 



ENGRAVED EJ.PREESSLy 



rOR WEAVeH's"LlyES Aho I 



GRAVES OF OUB PRESiOE 



CHAPTER III. 



JOHE" ADAMS. 

Second Pkesident of the United States. 



GEISTEALOGT. 



|pOHN ADAMS is a representative name in tlie annals of 
wM<- '^^^ England. It stands for the average man — for 
pF^ the hardy, strong middle class, which made up the 



J 0* great body of the early New England society. It belonged 
^F to a family that for several generations escaped poverty 
»1 J but did not attain riches ; who were of strong sense, but 
did not become great ; who were virtuous, but not marked 
with ability for leadership and supremacy. The ancestors of 
John Adams, the second president, were men of plain common 
sense, with virtue which often rose into rugged strength. They 
were of that stock which makes up the anatomy and muscle of 
strong society. Away back from the beginning of the colony; 
they were hard-working, good-sensed, solid-charactered men, 
who added force and stability to the new colony. As they 
approached his time they rose in their community; more of them 
sought a liberal education; more of them entered the ministry 
and served in public trusts; more of them gave evidence of the 
character-developing effects of the Puritan style of thought and 
life. His father's oldest brother, Joseph, was a Harvard scholar, 
and a minister for more than sixty years, in Newington, New 
Hampshire. His father intended that he should follow his 
uncle's example. Men of the Adams stamp in the Massachu- 
setts colony believed in education- and religion. They founded 



90 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

schools and colleges and supported them. They believed in an 
educated ministry and public service. Their state of society was 
largely the product of university culture in England. There 
were not many of them university men, but they read the books 
and were nourished by the thought of university scholars. 

The father of John Adams was a small farmer^ as the most 
of his ancestors had been. He was a deacon of the church, 
while many of his name had served their towns as selectmen and 
recorders, indicating the range of their place in society. 

The subject of this sketch was born in that part of Brain- 
tree, Massachusetts, now called Quincy, some ten miles south- 
west of Boston, October 30, 1735. Little is known of his boy- 
hood, more than that he worked on his father's farm, fished, 
hunted, played and went to school as other country boys of his 
time did, till he neared his sixteenth year. About this time his 
father told him his serious and ambitious intentions concerning 
him. The boy did not relish the thought of exchanging the 
free and cheery life of the farm, with the woods and brooks and 
not-far-off ocean, for the confinement and rigid rules and close 
study of the college, and told his father that he wanted to be a 
farmer. "Well, then," his father said, in substance; "if you 
want to be a farmer it is time you were at it in earnest. It will 
take all your time from now till you are twenty-one to learn it 
well. So you can give up play and go to work." John went to 
the field and plied the heavy implements in thoughtful medita- 
tion till weariness was in all his muscles. A little steady toil, a 
little sacrifice of pleasure to a purpose in his doing, a little 
serious thoughtfulness of life and its use and outcome, led him 
to conclude that he would like to try his father's plan for him, 
at least so far as a college course of study was concerned. His 
father was pleased, and put him at once upon his preparatory 
studies. At the age of sixteen he entered Harvard and grad- 
uated when he was twenty, esteemed for his integrity, energy 
and ability. He was one of a class of twenty-four, several of 
whom became distinguished men, but none so much so as he. 
Though among his farm-boy associates no one dreamed of his 
superior capacities, he liad not got through his college course 



JOHN ADAMS. 91 

before he was recognized as one of the three strongest scholars 
in his class; and the two who were classed with him became 
noted men, one of them a president of the college, the other a 
distinguished divine. The sharpening and develoj)ing effect of 
the college study soon began to show the quality and strength of 
the coming man. 

JOH]Sr ADAMS A TEACHER. 

Now that he was through college by his father's aid, he must 
at once do something for his own support. He soon got a j)osi- 
tion as teacher in a grammar school in Worcester, for such 
meager pay as to barely meet his wants. But he made it help 
him in other ways. The minds of his school children became 
studies. The government of his school taught him law, juris- 
prudence, executive order. He had a miniature republic before 
him, with each individual's rights claiming place in connection 
with the general good, each limiting the other. The subject of 
government had at this time become a great study in all the 
colonies. Everybody was a politician. All theories of govern- 
ment were studied and discussed. Every town was a sort of 
public lyceum for the study and discussion of government. 
Many were reading history to find philosophy and example to 
help them to true opinions and right conclusions. People can 
now scarcely realize the interest then felt in all that pertained 
to social order and well being. They were a new people on a 
new continent, crystalizing into a new order of society; what 
was it likely to be or to attain? Young Adams was studying 
these problems while he was teaching the Worcester children 
the rudiments of an education. From a letter written to his 
kinsman, Nathan Webb, and published by Mr. Webb's son fifty 
years after, take the following as a sample of the young man's 
thinking at this time: " Soon after the reformation a few people 
came over into this new world for conscience's sake. Perhaps 
this apparently trivial incident may transfer the great seat of 
empire into America. It looks like it to me; for if we can 
remove the turbulent Gallicks, our people, according to the 
exact computations, will in another century become more 



92 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

numerous than England itself. Should this be the case, since 
we have, I may say, all the naval stores of the nation in our 
hands, it will be easy to obtain the mastery of the seas, and then 
the united force of all Europe will not be able to subdue us. 
The only way to keep us from setting up for ourselves is to dis- 
unite us. Divide et impera. Keep us in distinct colonies, and 
then some great men in each colony, desiring the monarchy of 
the whole, they will destroy each other's influence and keep the 
country in equilihrio." This was written just before he was 
twenty years of age. This was twenty years before the revo- 
lution; and yet this youth was computing the growth and 
resources of America, the probable time before it would hold 
the balance of power against all Europe; the importance of the 
colonies being united, and, if united, the certainty that they 
would by and by set up for themselves. Here was the great 
statesman beginning to develop the philosophy of his states- 
manship, while yet a youth teaching the children of a country 
village for his daily bread. How little he foresaw the outcome 
of his thinking, and yet how true to the common law that the 
character of the man is given shape before the boy is out of his 
teens. Washington at nineteen was a military leader; John 
Adams at nineteen was a political philosopher. The boy is the 
type of the man inwardly as well as outwardly. Immensely 
important is this truth to know and act upon in the training 
of youth. 

In this same letter there are some noble sentiments on 
friendshij). He says : "Friendship, I take it, is one of the dis- 
tinguishing glories of man ; and the creature that is insensible 
to its charms, though he may wear the shape of man, is 
unworthy of the character. In this, perhaps, we bear a nearer 
resemblance to unembodied intelligence than in anything else. 
From this I expect to receive the chief happiness of my future 
life." This indicates that he was as great in heart as he was in 
intellect. A biographer says of this letter : "It was a letter of 
an original and meditative mind; a mind as yet aided only by 
the acquisitions then attainable at Harvard college, but formed 
by nature for statesmanship of the highest order/' 



JOHN" ADAMS. 93 

Very soou the political part of it began to be fulfilled. Its 
fulfillment is not complete yet, but as a nation we are marching 
in the line of his foresight. 

In a letter to his classmate, Charles Gushing, written the 
next April, he writes: "Upon common theatres indeed the 
applause of the audience it more to the actors than their own 
approbation. But upon the stage of life, while conscience claps, 
let the world hiss. On the contrary, if conscience disapproves, 
the loudest applauses of the world are of but little value. 

"We have, indeed, the liberty of choosing what character we 
shall sustain in this great and important drama. But to choose 
rightly, we should consider in what character we can do the 
most service to our fellow men as well as to ourselves. The 
man who lives wholly to himself is less worthy than the cattle 
in his barn." 

Here is a recognition of conscience in the conduct of life 
which would be creditable to any divine in any age. Indeed, it 
was written in reply to his friend's counsel that he should enter 
the ministry for his life's work. His father desired it ; his own 
heart almost persuaded him to it ; yet he had become such an 
original thinker on all questions, and so profoundly believed in 
the mind's liberty and power and duty of choice that he finally 
decided in favor of the law as the field in which he could be 
most useful to himself and the world. In this letter to Charles 
Cushing there is this postscript : "There is a story about town 
that I am an Armenian." Those were the days of dominant 
Calvinism. In this same letter he had indicated that the divine 
"should revere his own understanding more than the decrees of 
councils or the sentiments of fathers," a'iid "should resolutely 
discharge the duties of his station according to the dictates of 
his mind." This power and necessity of original thinking on 
all subjects that was so imperious in him led him to turn from 
the ministry, though as he said in his diary: "My inclination, 
I think, was to preach," Under the same date he says : 
"Although the reason of my quitting divinity was my opinion 
concerning some disputed points, I hope I shall not give 



94 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

reason of offense to any of that profession by imprudent 
warmth." 

On the twenty-first of August, 1756, he arranged with a Mr. 
Putnam to study law two years in his office. The next day, in 
noting this in his diary, he said: "The study and practice of 
law, I am sure, does not dissolve the obligations of morality 
and religion." A few days after he wrote to his friend Crancli 
of his "hard fortune:" "I am condemned to keep school two 
years longer. This I sometimes consider a very grievous calam- 
ity, and almost sink under the weight of woe." He was to teach 
school while he studied law. The hours out of the school-room 
were to be given to the study of law. The school-room was to 
board and clothe him, while the law office was to prepare him 
for his future profession. But checking his complaint about 
his hard fortune in having to continue teaching, he goes forward 
in a long letter recounting in fervent eloquence the blessings he 
is receiving from his Maker, and his multiform reasons for grat- 
itude and praise. In all the literature of religion there are few 
finer things than this sweet outpouring of intelligent and even 
poetic gratitude, in this letter to his young friend, and written 
two months before he was twenty-one. After enumerating in 
fine and fervent language his blessings in this life, he points to 
the richer ones in the realm of the future, and then asks: 
"Shall I now presume to complain of my hard fate? God for- 
bid. * * * J g^j^ happy, and shall remain so while health is 
indulged to me after all the other adverse circumstances that 
fortune can place me in." He then speaks of teaching school and 
studying law at the same time, and says: " It will be hard work, 
bvit the more difficult and dangerous the enterprise a brighter 
crown of laurel is bestowed on the conqueror." He persisted in 
his double work till he carried through his law studies and was 
admitted to the bar. 

LAW PRACTICE IN BRAINTREE. 

Mr. Adams was now a lawyer by profession; the next thing 
was to be a lawyer by practice. He could not very well teach 
school and practice law. Clients would not seek him in the 



JOHN" ADAMS. 95 

school-room, so he left the school-room to take his chances at 
earning a living in his profession. He was poor. Where should 
he go? There seemed but one place for him, which was Brain- 
tree, where his father's roof and table gave him what he had not 
money to buy. So here he began his professional career. But 
he had no prestige. His greatness was not yet known. It had 
not been published that he would sit in kings' courts, help 
create and then rule a great nation — that he was to enter the 
the ranks of the greatest men of the world and was to go into 
history as one of the luminaries of humanity. His old neigh- 
bors did not know, or dream these things of him; so they did 
not go much to him with business. He sat lonely hours in his 
office waiting for clients that did not come, wondering how he 
should ever get clients and business. He was anxious, sad and 
full of questionings as to what to do and what he could do. His 
coming greatness did nothing for him, and he had to plod and 
work, and worry and wait, as nearly all young professional men 
have to do. These were the gloomy days of his life. It was 
long an anxious question as to what he should do in life — what 
profession he should adopt. So now it was an anxious question 
as to how he should get anything to do in his profession. But 
he did not give up in despair, nor waste his time in idle sorrow. 
He renewed his zeal in the study of law. His diary indicates 
the great amount of study, speculation and investigation, which 
he gave to the broad fields of natural, statute and constitutional 
law, as well as the law of nations. In this lonely and unen- 
livened work of legal research, he laid the foundations of his 
future greatness. If clients did not bring him cases, he found 
them in the books. If his neighbors did not consult him, -he 
consulted the law as it had been adjudicated in the practice of 
the past. To this uncheered study he devoted several years. 

On the twenty-fifth of May, 1761, his father died, after nearly 
three years of this much study and little practice. He remained 
with his mother, caring for her business, three years longer, 
when he married Miss Abigail Smith, daughter of Beverend Will- 
iam Smith, a Congregational clergyman of Weymouth, a town 
adjoining Braintree. Mrs, Adams was a woman of rare ability 



96 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

and worth. She was connected with several of the best families 
in the colony. She was herself a rich flower of her rich family 
tree. By this marriage, after six years of weary plodding and 
studying and waiting, his business prospects brightened. The 
many family connections on his wife's side began to employ him, 
and by their influence put business into his hands. His 
acquaintance enlarged. Influential friends suggested, here and 
there, his employment in important cases. By the time he was 
thirty years old he seemed to have got well started in his pro- 
fession, largely through the influence which came to him 
through his marriage with Miss Smith. 

The troubles between the British parliament and the colonies 
began to foment about this time, which led to public meetings, 
to addresses, resolutions, and much private and public discus- 
sion of the relations of the colonies to the mother country. 
A society of lawyers had been formed in Boston for extended 
study of, and dissertations on, important legal questions. Mr. 
Adams, though living ten miles away, was invited to join this 
association. It did much to sharpen and broaden the legal 
talent of Boston and vicinity; and his participation in its discus- 
sion brought him to a more intimate acquaintance with the bar 
of Boston, He had, some years before, heard James Otis, in an 
argument on writs of assistance, go to the bottom of their danger 
as instruments of tyranny, and written out the argument in his 
diary, which led him to a profound study of human rights. All 
these things were schooling him for the great work that was before 
him, and acquainting him with the men to be joined with him. 
The Stamp act was passed by the British parliament in March, 
1765, and was to go into operation November 1. The Massachu- 
setts Colonial Legislature took decisive action, in June, to resist 
that act, which proposed to tax the colonies without their repre- 
sentation. James Otis proposed that all the colonies should be 
invited to join with Massachusetts, and that to this end a repre- 
sentative meeting of delegates from all the colonies be held in 
October, in New York city. 

This was the initiatory movement to a union. It was due to 
James Otis, at that time one of the most powerful and patriotic 




ENGRAVED EXFREESSLY FOR WEAVERS LIVES AND GRAVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. 



^,;'. 



JOHN" ADAMS. &? 

orators of Massachusetts. The public meetings held in Boston 
that summer to resist the Stamp act were addressed by Mr. 
Adams, by invitation of the citizens. 

When it became clear that the people would not permit the 
use of stamps, the Governor announced that all business would 
be suspended, especially of the custom-house and courts. Mr. 
Adams had now got a good start as a lawyer, had a thriving 
business, a large acquaintance and a growing popularity. It 
seemed to him as though this Stamp act was sure to ruin it. If 
the courts were closed, his occupation was gone. He expressed 
his gloomy fears in his diary. The very next day he received a 
letter, sent by express, from the town clerk of Boston, asking 
his aid as counsel for the town, in connection with James Otis, 
Jeremiah Gridley and William Cooper, to secure the continu- 
ance of the courts without the use of stamps. The proposition 
was to be argued before the governor and his council. Nothing 
was effected by this hearing, only to make more vigorous and 
popular and intelligent the opposition to the tyrannical act. 

EEMOVAL TO BOSTOlSr. 

So much had his business increased in Boston, and all his 
interests become identified with that town, that in 1768 he took 
up his residence there. The events in England and America 
were tending rapidly to revolution. Question after question was 
being discussed. The conflict between the governor of Massa- 
chusetts and the town of Boston grew more and more compli- 
cated and determined. The best legal talent was in constant 
service. Mr. Adams was one of the most active, and was always 
unswerving in the interests of justice and the people. The 
front of the conflict was between the governor, England's ser- 
vant, and the legislature — the servant of the people. For 
several years this conflict raged with all the force that craft and 
power and money could apj)ly on the part of the governor, and 
the honest skill and patriotic zeal of the people, defending their 
rights and resisting tyranny on the part of the legislature. Mr. 
Adams, through these years of intellectual encounter, was the 
patriotic lawyer, the people's counsellor, the sharp, strong, zeal- 
7 



98 OUR PHESlDEKTS. 

ous advocate of American rights and principles. He, with his 
patriotic coadjutors, won victory after victory in these legal and 
moral encounters, till the people were so fired and the king and 
his parliament so resolved on the forced submission of the colo- 
nies that the civil power retired and the military arm came into 
rule by might. Now courts were suspended, legislatures were at 
an end, and Mr. Adams realized what he feared when the Stamp 
act was passed — the loss of all business. With the coming of 
General Gage, commander of all the British forces in America, 
and the occupancy of Boston by his troops, the lawyers' business 
ceased. Cases were not to be tried in the presence of cannon. 
Arguments were not to be made to regiments in arms. 

At this gloomy time, when his wife was on a visit to Brain- 
tree, he wrote to her as follows: 

Boston, 12 May, 1774. 

My own infirmities, the account of the return of yours, and the public 
news, coming all together, have put my philosophy to the trial. 

We live, my dear soul, in an age of trial. What will be the conse- 
quence I know not. The town of Boston, for aught I can see, must suffer 
martyrdom. It must expire, and our principal consolation is, that it dies in 
a noble cause — the cause of truth, of virtue, of liberty and of humanity, 
and that it will probably have a glorious resurrection to greater wealth, 
splendor and power than ever. 

Let me know what it is best for us to do. It is expensive keeping a 
family here, and there is no prospect of any business in my way in this 
town this whole summer. I don't receive a shilling a week. We must con- 
trive as many ways as we can to save expenses, for we may have calls to 
contribute very largely, in proportion to our circumstances, to prevent other 
very honest, worthy people from suffering for want, besides our own loss in 
point of business and profit. 

Don't imagine from all this that I am in the dumps. Far otherwise. 
I can truly say tliat I have felt more spirits and activity since the arrival of 
this news than I have done for years. I look upon this as the last effort of 
Lord North's despair, and he will as surely be defeated in it as he was in the 
project of the tea. 

His letters, diary and public addresses all indicate that he 
had a profound philosophy of the triumph of liberty and jus- 
tice. However dark the present, he saw light in the future. 
If Boston shall be laid in ashes, a new Boston will rise there- 



JOHN ADAMS. 99 

from more glorious and powerful. If America shall suffer from 
misgovernment and oppression, she shall come from her suffer- 
ings renewed in spirit for a grander career. He had read history 
to learn that truth, right and virtue, in the long run, prevail; 
and that wrong and injustice turn upon and devour their propa- 
gators at last. He had rejected the prevailing theology because 
of its despair of human nature and its distrust of the Divine 
goodness. He had adopted a generous and hopeful philosophy 
of humanity. All this now came to sustain him in his own 
and his country's peril and distress ; and not only to sustain 
him, but to make him a great leader, through darkness and war, 
to the light and peace beyond. It was not simply his intel- 
lectual strength and furnishing that made him the power he 
was in his times, but those great and humane, and hopeful, moral 
and religious convictions which almost led him into the minis- 
try, and would, but for his rejection of some of the dogmas of 
the prevailing church, and which he carried into all the work 
of his life. He was a lawyer, and believed in law ; a philoso- 
pher, and believed in truth ; a moralist, and believed in virtue ; 
and a religionist, and believed in God. All these combined 
made the basis of his statesmanship and the ruling power of his 
private and public life. 

The opening of the war scenes of the revolution changed the 
course of Mr. Adams' life. He was a lawyer, and sought only 
to magnify his calling. He had ambition, but it was in the 
line of his profession. He saw an ample field for all his power; 
but now his occupation was gone. Boston, his chosen home, 
was a camp of war. The rights of his countrymen were tram- 
pled under invading feet. There was but one course for him to 
pursue ; that was to put himself and all he had into the defense 
' the rights of America. 

PUBLIC LIFE BEGAN". 

Mr. Adams was now thirty-nine years old. General Gage, 
now acting in the double capacity of military commander and 
civil governor, had ordered the meeting of the legislature of the 



100 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

colony at Salem, instead of Boston. An effort was made to put 
John Adams on the council of the governor, but Gage, hearing 
of it, negatived it at once. The legislature met in Salem, June 
7, 1774. Its members began at once the most active secret 
measures to defeat the plans of the governor. On the seven- 
teenth of June, a motion was made that the doorkeeper keep 
the door closed against all passage in or out. One hundred and 
twenty-nine members were present. At once a resolution was 
oifered in approval of the meeting in Philadelphia on the first 
of September, of the committees from the several colonies of 
America — the Colonial Congress, in fact, — according to the sug- 
gestion of James Otis nine years before, in relation to the Stamp 
act. The object of the meeting as stated in the resolution was: 
'' To consult upon wise and proper measures to be recommended 
to all the colonies for the recovery and establishment of their 
Just rights and liberties, civil and religious, and the restoration 
of union and harmony between the two countries, most 
ardently desired by all good men." This bold resolution, with 
others, was taken up at once. It was a surprise to most of the 
members. It was a move toward union, and dictation to 
England. They were consulting in defiance of their governor. 
There were spies in the assembly. One of them evaded the 
vigilance of the doorkeeper and carried intelligence to the 
governor. The governor immediately sent a messenger to 
prorogue the legislature. But the doorkeeper's orders were 
absolute and he would not admit him, but sent in word of his 
mission. The legislature took no notice of it. A few idlers 
and members had gathered on the steps outside, and to them the 
messenger read the governor's proroguing message; but the work 
inside went on. The resolutions were discussed and passed — 
one hundred and seventeen for, and twelve against them. 
James Bowdoin, Thomas Gushing, Samuel Adams, John Adams 
and Kobert Treat Payne, were appointed to serve Massachusetts 
in the congress. When this great initiatory step was taken, the 
legislature dissolved according to the governor's order, never 
more to meet under royal authority. 



JOHK ADAMS. 101 



THE COLONIAL COIS'GRESS. 

The Colonial Congress was called to meet September 1, 1774. 
It was for consultation. It had no aiithority; it was simply a 
meeting of delegated citizens to talk over their grievances; to 
get acquainted with each other and the condition of the colo- 
nies, and try to act together in their endeavors to bring Eng- 
land to a better mind toward them. Massachusetts had asked 
for this meeting to get the other colonies to make common 
cause with her, to symi^athize with, and share her oppression. 

The first things considered were non-importation, non-con- 
sumption and non-exjDortation acts. It would hurt England to 
refuse to buy her goods, to cease to consume anything she made, 
to cease to sell her anything the colonies produced. 

But their consultation produced quite other results than 
their acts! It stimulated their courage. It led them to speak 
out their feelings. "^ What is a king's promise?" asked young 
Eutledge, of South Carolina, in a defiant tone. "A constitu- 
tional death to Lords Bute, Mansfield and North ! " cried Har- 
rison. And so by brave words which the world did not then 
hear, as their consultations were secret, they opened their hearts 
to each other. On the seventeenth of September Adams wrote 
in his diary: "This day has convinced me that America will 
support Massachusetts, or perish with her." Yet the delegates 
were far from being agreed on anything. Many of them were 
fearful of offending the king and his governors. They generally 
loved and honored England. With patience, forbearance and 
wisdom they talked over their differences of opinion, and yet 
gave out to the world that unity and harmony prevailed among 
them. The unity was in their mutual desire to allay the lion's 
anger, and their wise readiness to stand by each other in their 
efforts to do it. 

The Congress continued two months. It prepared with great 
care a petition to the king, and the acts of non-intercourse as 
threats and proofs of their resolution; but the greatest benefit 
of the Congress was the acquaintance of the leading men of the 



103 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

colonies with each other, and the preparation for the final union 
made by this acquaintance. 

CORRESPONDENCE WITH HIS WIFE. 

This journey to Philadelphia was Mr. Adams' first visit out 
of New England. It was full of interest to him in many 
respects. During this journey began that correspondence with 
his wife on political matters, which has been of great interest to 
the world since their day. Mrs. Abigail Adams was a woman 
of rare mind who entered into all the great interests of the 
colonies with judgment and enthusiasm. He wrote to her of 
the questions discussed in Congress, and she to him of the 
stirring events going on in Boston and the colony. 

The correspondence on state matters thus begun, was kept 
up through all their separation. After his public life began 
they were much separated, and the history of that life was 
largely written in his letters to her. 

HIS ELECTION TO THE PROVINCIAL CONGRESS. 

He had been at home but a few days, before he was called to 
Watertown to give his counsel in the Massachusetts Provincial 
Congress, then in session. A few days later he was elected by 
Braintree, a member of that Congress, and continued so till the 
end of its career. He was thus in the heart of the activities of 
the time in Massachusetts. At this time some leading tory in 
Massachusetts, who called himself "Massachusettensis,'' wrote a 
series of able articles in a Boston newspaper, on the British view 
of the situation and in defense of the course of King George. 

Mr. Adams wrote a series of articles for the Boston Gazette 
in reply, over the name of "Novanglus." Both series were 
widely read and studied in the colonies. The articles of Mr. 
Adams were afterward published under the title of "^A History 
of the Dispute with America." They now appear permanently 
as a part of the history of the times in his works. His grand- 
son and biographer, Charles Francis Adams, says of them: "No 
publication of the times compares with them in extent of 



JOHN ADAMS. 103 

research into the principles of the ancient law, and in the vigor- 
ous application of them to the question at issue." 

By the Massachusetts congress Mr. Adams was appointed to 

THE SECOND CONTINENTAL CONGKESS. 

The winter of 1774 and 1775 was a fearful one to the people 
of Massachusetts. In April, 1775, the battles of Lexington and 
Concord were fought, which brought almost all the male popu- 
lation of the colony under arms to defend their homes against 
the soldiers of their king. Fearful was the agitation over the 
whole country. In the midst of this agitation Mr. Adams set 
out for the second Continental Congress at Philadelphia. The 
delegates were everywhere hailed with delight. Their journey 
was made an ovation. In New York, almost the Avhole city 
came out. The whole of the militia were in arms. This day's 
ovation settled it that New York would go into the confederation 
of the colonies. They hastened on. The Congress met in a 
very different mood from that in which it parted the fall before. 
Lexington and Concord had united them. The spirit of the 
men of Massachusetts was now in the people of all the colonies. 

Early in June Mr. Adams moved that Congress adopt the 
army around Boston as its own, and proceed to officer and supply 
it, and, in making the motion, said that though it was not time 
to name a commander yet, ^'I have no hesitation to declare that 
I have one gentleman in my mind for that important command, 
and that is a gentleman from Virginia, who is among us and 
very well known to us all; a gentleman whose skill and experience 
as an officer; whose independent fortune, great talents and excel- 
lent universal character will command the approbation of all 
America and unite the cordial exertions of all the colonies better 
than any other person in the Union." 

On the fifteenth of June the army was adopted. Immedi- 
ately after George Washington, whom Mr. Adams a few days 
before had pointed out as the proper man, was elected com- 
mander-in-chief. Two days after, June 17, perhaps at the very 
time the battle of Bunker Hill was being fought, he wrote to a 
friend: ''This appointment will have a great effect in cement- 



104 OUK PRESIDENTS. 

ing and securing the union of these colonies; the liberties of 
America depend upon him, in a great degree." 

The work of this Congress was great, and it was greatly done. 
It had to provide an army and a government, unite and consoli- 
date the people — in a word, it had to create an empire, and it 
did it. It had every difficulty in the way, but by a marvelous 
wisdom it got over and around them all. 

While Mr. Adams was at this work he was receiving letters 
from his wife in Braintree, with her four little children exposed 
to the horrors of war, her home but a little way from the sea, 
in a region swept over and over again by the marauding British 
soldiers, and visited often by our own soldiers in their needs. 
Under anxiety for his family, and for the whole country, he and 
his coadjutors from Massachusetts had to perform their great 
duties. These were indeed "the times that tried men's souls." 

After the battle of Bunker Hill, Mr. Adams saw clearly that 
all talk of reconciliation was vain, and he shaped his course 
accordingly; he did all he could to strengthen, officer and sup- 
port the army, and he began to forecast a constitution, laws, a 
system of finance, a naval defense and whatever must enter into 
a nation's necessities. While he did not break with the timid 
and halting, like John Dickinson, he yet planned in his mind 
for what actually came. 

About this time two of his private letters — one to his wife 
arid one to General James Warren — were intercepted by the 
British and published in Boston. They were so radical and 
vigorous for independence, and spoke with such disrespect of all 
conciliation, that he became a marked man in the king's hatred. 
Parliament talked much of arresting him, and the king's friends 
in America made their dislike of him conspicuous. Many of 
the timid friends of the colonies shunned him. It is said that 
John Dickinson became his enemy for the rest of his life, and 
that even John Hancock drew away from him and became cau- 
tious of intercourse with him. This made it necessary for him 
to use every argument, public and private, to make his views 
known and understood by the people. In Congress and out, he 
grew more and more influential; and he reiterated more and 



JOHN ADAMS. 105 

more his strong opinion that peace was possible only at the arbi- 
tration of the sword. Sink or swim^ survive or perish, we must 
fight, was his burning conviction. 

The course of the British government more and more con- 
vinced the people that John Adams saw the alternative offered 
to the colonies, to fight for their independence or be perma- 
nently oppressed. Every month made it clearer to some of them, 
and when the summer of 1776 made clear to the people that our 
soldiers could match the red-coats, and that the decision must 
be made by the fierce onslaught of war, they were ready for the 
declaration of indejiendence. There were still many for begging 
and cringing and waiting, — many who so believed in the infalli- 
bility and omnipotence of England, that it seemed like resisting 
the Almighty to lift the feeble hand of the colonies against her ; 
but John Adams' strong voice rang out for freedom or death ; 
and Patrick Henry responded with matchless eloquence to the 
mighty appeal. At length the die was cast, and the country 
committed to freedom or death. 

MINISTER TO FRANCE. 

In the last part of the year 1777, Mr. Adams was appomted 
by congress minister to France. He accepted the dangers, and 
set sail on the thirteenth of February, 1778, and reached Paris 
the eighth of April, after liavmg been chased by British cruisers, 
encountered a severe storm in the gulf-stream, met and captured 
a British letter-of -marque, and passed safely the exposure in the 
British channel. He found affairs in a better condition than 
was expected. His predecessor, Mr. Deane, had arranged a 
treaty that gave reasonable satisfaction to the country. Mr. 
Adams found the French people in full sympathy with America, 
and in the belief that the war would soon close. Indeed, it has 
been since learned that the capitulation of Burgoyne convinced 
the English government that it could not conquer her vigorous 
colonies in America; but the dogged stubbornness cf the British 
spirit would not yield till the capture of Cornwallis at Yorktown. 
Mr. Adams put the affairs between France and America in a 
satisfactory conditipja, and returned in about seventeen months. 



106 OUR PRESIDENTS. 



MASSACHUSETTS CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. 

In two clays after his return to his home, Mr. Adams was 
elected by Braintree to serve in the convention which was to 
form a constitution for Massachusetts. In this commonwealth 
there were three interests to be conciliated and combined — the 
extreme democracy of the rural districts, the extreme property 
interests chiefly of the seaport towns, and the middle class of 
trading and professional men. They were each clamoring for 
supremacy. If they could be happily combined, the great 
question of popular government in America would be favorably 
solved. The convention met. As though by a good Provi- 
dence, the best-read constitutional lawyer of America, John 
Adams, had returned and been elected to this convention. He 
was no partisan ; he served no faction ; he had no interest of 
his own to serve ; he was simply the ripe man of the times pre- 
pared to serve the new nation being born and the new era of 
constitutional law for the world. As Washington was the provi- 
dential man to lead the armies to victory, so was Adams the 
providential man to lay the foundation of the new government 
in constitutional law. At the opening of the convention, his 
pre-eminent abilities and service to his country pointed to him 
to open an outline of the work to be done, which he did in a 
speech of such commanding clearness and force that it became 
the fountain of unity for all adverse interests. Personal rights, 
property rights, state rights and national rights, were so disen- 
tangled and classified that the convention was enabled to give 
them all their proper place in the constitution, and thus set 
before the world ^ outline of constitutional law in which all 
rights are protected, and a government by the people made pos- 
sible and powerful. 

The true aim of government, in his idea, was to establish 
upon the firmest footing the rights of all who live under it, 
giving to no one interest power enough to become aggressive 
upon the rest, and yet not denying to each a share sufficient for 
its own protection. The convention at once announced its 
object in two propositions : first, "to establish a free republic j'* 



JOH]!f ADAMS. 107 

second, " to organize the government of a people by fixed laws 
of their own making." 

COMMISSIONEK FOR PEACE. 

Mr. Adams was not through with the work of the conven- 
tion when he was appointed commissioner to treat for peace and 
commerce with Great Britain. On the thirteenth of November, 
1779, he sailed for Paris on this mission, and reached the French 
capital on the fifth of February, 1780. But difficulties arising 
between him and Count de Vergennes, he had less to do on this 
mission than was expected. While remaining at Paris he used 
his joen freely in enlightening Europe on American affairs. 

During his stay in Europe he visited Holland and effected a 
treaty of amity and commerce with that country which he 
always regarded with as much satisfaction as any service he ever 
rendered his own country. 

Here, in the ''Gazette " of Ley den, he published twenty-six 
letters on the revolution in America, which are now published 
in his works by his grandson. 

With Holland he arranged for a loan of money for the United 
States, which was a great help to them in their financial stress. 

Now France, Spain and Holland had become friendly and 
helpful to the United States. 

In October, 1782, he returned to Paris, and after much 
diplomatic manoeuvering, met the other commissioners from 
America and those from England, and arranged for a treaty of 
peace with England, which was signed at Paris on the twenty- 
first of January, 1783. 

Soon after this, Frederick the Second, of Prussia, made 
overtures to Mr. Adams for a treaty of amity and commerce 
with his country. After some correspondence, he agreed upon 
a treaty to offer to Congress; by this time he received authority, 
in conjunction with Dr. Franklin and Mr. Jefferson, to nego- 
tiate treaties with any European power desiring such treaty. 

This opened a prospect of a much longer stay in Europe, 
and Mrs. Adams, with their only daughter, went to France to 
join him in his lonely life abroad. This was a comfort and help 



108 OUE PRESIDENTS. 

he greatly needed. His health had become impaired by the 
strain upon him in the last ten years. He needed her society. 
His country was now free, and though yet in many trials, he 
believed would maintain and justify itself before the world 

Paris was in a stage of transition from what it had been to 
something yet to be determined. Philosophy and literature had 
become the rage of a class of brilliant and fashionable people. 
Keligion was, in the main, scouted by them. The flippant ridi- 
cule of all things sacred, in which Voltaire was the brilliant and 
easy-virtued leader, had a great following. Old France was 
despised; new France, under philosophy and popular leadership, 
was hailed with hurrahs. Mr. Adams was in the midst of this 
society. They had only congratulations for him and his happy 
country. But he knew how little they understood his country, 
and the profound respect of its people for all that is sacred in 
religion, and severe and self-sacrificing in virtue. Through a 
casting down of religion and all the old notions of government, 
the French looked for a government of the people ; while 
America looked for a republic through an elevation of religion, 
and a practical respect for whatever has been found useful in 
constitutional government. 

With the French, freedom was a frenzy of the passions; with 
the Americans, it was a principle of the conscience. Not under- 
standing it, the French gave the Americans great joy over their 
success, and thought they were about to copy the example ; but 
they gave, at last, so much of their distraction to America, 
that they much endangered the liberties of the new nation. 

THE NEW COMMISSION. 

On the thirtieth day of August, 1784, Mr. Adams, Dr. 
Franklin and Thomas Jefferson met in Paris to begin their work 
of forming treaties of amity and commerce with the countries of 
Europe. But no country came forward but Prussia, which had 
already a well-considered plan. In due time this was completed 
and signed. 

On the twenty-fourth day of February, 1785, Congress 
elected Mr. Adams to the post of envoy to the court of St. 



JOHN ADAMS. 109 

James; and accordingly in the May following he went to reside 
in England. This appointment to the court of George III. 
made necessary a presentation to the king in person. It was 
probably as profoundly cool a meeting as two strongly self- 
willed and high-positioned persons ever had. Each did his part 
as well as he could under the circumstances. But so solid was 
the king's hatred of the rebels whom he could not conquer, and 
so heartily did his goyernment and people sympathize with 
him, that no satisfactory treaty of commerce could be made 
with them. At that time, in England, the prevailing opinion 
was that the United States was a union of sand and would soon 
fall apart. The first flush of enthusiasm in Europe over the 
American war, soon turned into a distrustful waiting to see 
what would be the result. All the ancient republics had been 
short-lived. European intelligence generally supposed this 
would be. The poverty of the American people after the war; 
the general distraction of society; their difficulty in paying 
foreign debts; the fierce opposition of many to Washington as 
president; the organization of Jacobin or democrat clubs; the 
tendency in many places to rebellion; the prevailing sympathy 
with revolutionary France; the sectional jealousies; the distrust 
of the national government in many minds, and the general 
irritability of the popular nerves, made European monarchists 
generally distrust the capacity of America to make successful 
the experiment of self-government; and in England this convic- 
tion amounted almost to a certainty, that in a very few years the 
conquering rebels would call upon their mother country to take 
them back. And there was much in America to awaken distrust 
of them. Why, then, should they make treaties with such a 
body of anarchy? Mr. Adams was full of anxiety, and often 
wished he was at home to assist in making general the principles 
he had put into the constitution of Massachusetts. 

ADAMS' PUBLICATIONS IN ENGLAND. 

From his long residence in France, Mr. Adams became deeply 
convinced of the dangerous fallacies that were leading the 
French people into irreligion and anarchj , which fallacies he 



110 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

feared were misleading many Americans and endangering their 
attempt at self-government. So to rectify European and Ameri- 
can mistakes together, as far as he could, he prepared and pub- 
lished, while in England, a work of three volumes, entitled, ''A 
Defense of the Constitution of the United States of America 
against the Attack of M. Turgat," It gave an analysis of all 
ancient free governments, and summarized their histories and 
results in the main. It stated and enforced his ideas of the 
American system. The first volume was published and sent to 
this country in season to be republished, circulated and read, 
before the meeting of the convention which made the constitu- 
tion under which the United States have had a century of 
unexampled prosperity. It was an antidote to the French ideas 
and influence which were then prevailing. It was a help to the 
members of the constitutional convention, to the state legisla- 
tures and people at large. Perhaps it was this great work pub- 
lished abroad, which made possible to America the inimitable 
constitution under which, in one hundred years, it has become 
the first nation in the world. 

MADE VICE-PRESIDENT. 

Mr. Adams took leave of the Old World on the twentieth of 
April, 1788. He reached America in the midst of the excite- 
ment over the acceptance of the constitution. In the formation 
of the govei'nment under the constitution, he was elected the 
first vice-president to serve under Washington. The office 
usually is not very important, but at this beginning of the gov- 
ernment it was important in settling usage and defining import- 
ant principles; for no less than twenty times during the first 
administration did he cast the deciding vote in the senate, and 
sometimes explained the reasons for his vote, to set the prin- 
ciples involved clearly before the people. 

MADE SECOND PRESIDENT. 

At the close of Washington's second term of office as presi- 
dent of the United States, John Adams was elected as his suc- 
cessor, with Thomas Jefferson as vice-president. 



JOHN ADAMS. Ill 

At this time, political partisanship had grown to be strong. 
The federalists were those who had promoted the adoption of 
the constitution ; had favored a strong government fashioned 
after the English model, in which the legislative, judicial and 
executive dejDartments held checks over each other, and all had 
their source in the people. Washington and Adams were of 
this party, though neither of them were strong partisans. Thus 
far it had been the dominant party, though the influence of 
French opinions and politics had grown much of late among the 
rural people, and the influence of Jefferson, the leader of demo- 
cratic ideas, had come to be strong. The democratic party was 
rather organizing than organized. It was composed largely of 
those who sympathised with the lovers of freedom in France, 
and had an intense hatred of everything English. Its whole 
stock in. trade was a splendid theory, and the enthusiasm of 
many of its devotees was very great. Mr. Adams was a leader 
in founding the government, in constitution-making, in putting 
great practical principles into working forms ; but not a leader 
in organizing men into party activities. 

At that time the greed for office had not grown mucn among 
the strong men of the new nation, and Mr. Adams found it dif- 
ficult to fill the leading places in his government with first-class 
minds. He was obliged to take such as would serve, and in the 
end the weakness of some of his cabinet filled his way with 
difficulties. The country was divided chiefly over its foreign 
policies. The federalists, in the main, apjDroved of Mr. Jay's 
treaty with England, which "Washington had signed, and lost 
many friends by doing so, while the opposition party approved 
of a close sympathy with the new things in France and called 
the federalists tories. The strong French party in America led 
many unscrupulous French managers to attempt to carry 
America into the French war with England, and then their con- 
duct was so false to treaty obligations as to come near causing 
a war between France and America. All preparations were 
made, even to raising an army and appointing its leading offi- 
cers; but before declaring war, Mr, Adams thought some further 
effort should be made to avert it, and when the French leadei's 



113 OUR PRfiSlDEKfg. 

found what resentment they had stirred up in America, they 
were as anxious to allay it as were the friends of peace in Amer- 
ica to have it allayed. It was an over-interest in French and 
English affairs which led different classes in America into for- 
eign sympathies and entanglements, that caused the government 
much trouble and came very near wrecking the new ship of 
state. 

It has since become pretty clear that Mr. Hamilton, the 
leader of the federalists, was in league with ambitious schemers 
in England and elsewhere to secure large portions of the Spanish 
possessions in America for the United States, and as an entering 
wedge to this scheme, a war with France would raise a large army 
which he would lead, and once raised he thought to make it 
necessary to keep it large and active in promoting his ambitious 
schemes of empire. A country without an army was noi; known 
in the world, and Hamilton believed an army was needed in 
America. It looks as though he would have been glad to play a 
Napoleonic part on the American continent. 

To inaugurate his plan, Mr. Hamilton worked secretly, 
through Mr. Adams' cabinet and the friendship of Washington, 
neither of whom mistrusted his ambitious designs. But Mr. 
Adams' aversion to war, only as a last resort, and his personal 
resolution against his cabinet, to make still further overtures 
to France, consumed time for France to see some of her mis- 
takes and to make clear a way of adjustment. So war with 
France was averted; Hamilton's schemes of an empire in the 
Spanish possessions were frustrated, and the young American 
ship of state was tided over the most dangerous shoals it has 
yet encountered. 

It was, perhaps, some knowledge of these growing "foreign 
entanglements " which led Washington in his farewell address 
to solemnly warn his countrymen against them, and to charge 
them to be loyal to the development of their own affairs. A 
tolerably full account of these troublous times and their intrigues 
and dangers, is to be found in "The Life and Works of John 
Adams," by Charles Francis Adams. A knowledge of these things 



JOHN ADAMii. 113 

is necessary to an nntlerstancling of the political issues of that 
time, and the strong parties that j)roceeded therefrom. 

In due course of time Mr. Adams' intelligent and faithful 
administration came to its close. As it is looked to now, his part 
in it is regarded as one of great purity and integrity. The pol- 
icies and schemes of France and England had been forced upon 
this country. The people had not learned that they should be 
wholly separate from foreign entanglements. Some individuals 
in Mr. Adams' party schemed with parties abroad, which brought 
him and his party into great and undeserved odium. The truth 
of this scheming was then only partially understood, and the 
bitterness engendered by it was all the greater on this account. 

EETIEEMENT TO BRAINTEEE. 

On the fourth of March, 1801, Thomas Jefferson was inau- 
gurated as Mr. Adams' successor, with Aaron Burr as vice- 
president. Mr. Adams retired at once from the scene, not wait- 
ing even for the ceremonies of inauguration. He was sensitive 
and passionate to a high degree, even dictatorial and absolute 
when aroused. He had been level-headed and just-minded 
through all the differences, and had actually saved his country 
from war, and perhaps from an early death, and yet was rewarded 
for it by seeing his most bitter opponent, and the man that had 
done most to bring in foreign ideas, raised to his place. But 
far wiser would it have been for him to have mastered his resent- 
ment and gone calmly from what he thought the scene of his 
defeat. In reality he was victor. Posterity has done him jus- 
tice. He now stands as more nearly the peer of Washington 
than any other of the great revolutionary patriots. He was 
greatest of all as a constitutional lawyer and statesman. His 
purity and integrity were equal to Washington's, but he lacked 
the fine poise, the discretion, the quick insight into men and 
occasions, the ability to put himself aside and see as an outsider, 
and act accordingly. He lacked the reserve of speech, the pre- 
vailing modesty and overmastering serenity which did so much 
for the great father of his country. He was too out-spoken, self- 
8 



114 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

asserting, and too separate from common men, and so was never 
popular — was always unfortunate with the masses. 

After the presidency, he retired to his farm and followed that 
early inclination which wanted to be a farmer. , 

He at once set about his private and domestic affairs, and 
spent the remainder of his life in retirement from public inter- 
ests. Twenty-six years he had spent in the heart of his coun- 
try's affairs, after Washington, the most useful man in founding 
our institutions. This great country owes much to the genius 
of his great mind in harmonizing and adjusting the principles 
and powers put into it. It has worked a hundred years with but 
little change, and may work on as long as its people shall be 
loyal, intelligent and virtuous. 

In his retirement, Mr. Adams read extensively — more exten- 
sively than ever before. He restudied the great questions of 
religion, and finally settled nearly upon the general ideas of the 
unitarian theology, and lived and died in great peace of mind 
touching those matters. 

After years of estrangement, through mutual friends, ne 
came into amicable relations with Mr. Jefferson. With the 
decline of that rancorous party spirit that was so savage at the 
close of his administration, returning friendship for him showed 
itself in many ways, and his, at first, embittered life in retire- 
ment, became cheerful and beautiful. His son, John Quincy, 
came into public notice as a rising man of his time, and he felt 
a renewed interest in the affairs of government, and the general 
interests of the public. 

On the twenty-eighth of October, 1818, his wife died in the 
eighty -third year of his age. This cast a deep shadow over his • 
life. They had lived in great peace, mutual helpers to one 
another. 

When about eighty-five years old he wrote a series of letters 
to Judge Tudor, detailing with great definiteness the early move- 
ment of the peojDle of Massachusetts in defense of their rights — 
giving in minute detail the parts enacted by Otis, Hawley and 
Samuel Adams. This series of letters has been the source from 
which nearly all we now know of those events, was drawn. 



JOHN" ADAMS. 115 

On the fifteenth day of November, 1815, he was elected by 
Braintree to the state convention called to amend the constitu- 
tion on the creation of the district of Maine into a separate state ; 
and so he helped amend the constitution he assisted in making 
forty years before. In this convention he received great testimo- 
nials of respect. It was a fitting close of a great public career. 
His declining years grew more and more tranquil. He enjoyed 
the rising recognition of his son's worth, and lived to see him 
elected president of the government he had done so much to 
found. He died on the fourth of July, 1836, just fifty years 
after the declaration of independence. His last words were, 
" Thomas Jefferson still survives." But it was soon learned that 
Jefferson had died an hour before. So these great compatriots 
were called home almost together, just when the nation was 
rejoicing in the first semi-centennial of its existence. 



^HE ilRAVES OF THE AdAMSES. 

There is something touching in the contemplation of the 
graves of two presidents, father and son, who sleej) side by side, 
with their companions, in the town where they were born and 
which always held their homes, and under the church built by 
the congregation with which they worshiped. So sleep the 
two Adamses. At the death of John Adams in 1826, his son, 
then president, secured from the trustees of the new church 
about to be built, a deed to ''a portion of soil in the cellar, 
situated under the porch, and containing fourteen feet in length 
and fourteen feet in breadth," with the privilege of affixing 
tablets with obituary inscriptions, in the walls of the church. 
In this crypt was deposited, in 1828, the bodies of John and 
Abigail Adams; and in 1848, those of John Quincy Adams and 
his wife. The tomb is in the front part of the cellar and is 
made of large blocks of granite, slightly faced. A granite slab, 
seven feet by three, hung on strong iron hinges, and fastened 
with clasp and padlock, is the door. The Ijodies are inclosed in 



116 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

leaden caskets, placed in stone coffins, each hewn from a single 
block of granite. 

In the church above, at the right of the pulpit, as seen from 
the pews, is the memorial tablet of marble, seven feet by four, 
surmounted by a life-size bust from Horatio Greenough. Below 
the bust is the Latin line: 

Lihertatem, Amicitiam, Fidem, Retinebus. 

Above the tablet are the words: Thy luill he done. The inscrip- 
tion upon the tablet is in two columns ; the first is as follows: 

D. O. M. 

Beneatli these walls 
Are deposited the mortal remains of 

Son of John and Susanna (Boylston) Adams, 

Second President of the United States: 

Born 19-30, October, 1735. 

On the Fourth of July, 1776, 

He pledged his Life, Fortune and Sacred Honor 

To the 

INDEPENDENCE OF HIS COUNTRY. 

On the Third of September, 1783, 

He affixed his seal to the definitive treaty with Great Britain, 

Which acknowledged that independence, 

And consummated the redemption of his pledge. 

On the Fourth of July, 1836, 

He was summond 

To the Independence of Immortality, 

And to the 

JUDGMENT OF HIS GOD. 

This House will bear witness to his piety ; 

This Town, his birthplace, to his munificence; 

History to his patriotism ; 

Posterity to the depth and compass of his mind. 



JOHN ADAMS. 11? 

The inscription in the second cohimu is as follows : 

At his side 
Sleeps, till the trumpet shall sound. 

His beloved aud only wife, 

Daughter of William and Elizabeth (Quincy) Smith; 

In every relation of life a pattern 

Of fQial, conjugal, maternal and social virtue. 

Born November 11-22, 1744; 

Deceased, 28 October, 1818; 

Aged 74. 

Married, 25 October, 1764. 

During an union of more than half a century, 

They survived, in harmony of sentiment and affection. 

The tempests of civil commotion: 

Meeting undaunted, and surmounting 

The terrors and trials of that Revolution, 

Which secured the freedom of their Country; 

Improved the condition of their times ; 

And brightened the prospects of Futurity 

To the race of Man upon Earth. 

PILGRIM. 

From lives thus spent, thy earthly duties learn; 
From fancy's dreams to active virtue turn; 
Let Freedom, Friendship, Faith, thy soul engage. 
And serve, like them, thy country and thy age. 

On the other side of the pulpit, the tablet of John Quincy 
Adams and his wife occupies a similar place. It is surmounted 
by a similar bust, beneath which are the words, "Alteri Smculo," 
divided by an acorn and two oak leaves. Over the tablet is 
" Thy kingdom come." As on the other tablet, the first column 
is devoted to the president, and the other to his wife. Without 



118 OUll PKESIDENTS. 

preserving the lineal divisions, but retaining the capitals, this 
is the record: 

Near this place reposes all that could die of John Quincy Adams, Son 
of John and Abigail (Smith) Adams, sixth President of the United States. 
Born 11 of July, 1767, amidst the storms of civil commotion, he nursed the 
vigor which inspires a Christian. For more than half a century. Whenever 
his country called for his labors, In either Hemisphere or in any capacity, 
He never spared them in her caase. On the twenty -fourth of December, 
1814, He signed the second treaty with Great Britain which restored Peace 
within her borders. On the twenty- third of February, 1848, he closed six- 
teen years of eloquent defense of the lessons of his youth, by dying at his 
post in her great National Council. A Son worthy of his Father, A Citizen 
shedding glory on his country, A Scholar ambitious to advance Mankind, 
this Christian sought to walk humbly In the sight of God. 

The second column on the tablet records the important facts 
of the life of his ''partner for fifty years, Louisa Catharine,^' of 
whom it is said that, "living through many vicissitudes and 
under higli responsibilities as a daughter, wife and mother, she 
proved equal to all ; dying, she left to her family and her sex 
the blessed remembrance of 'a woman that feareth the Lord.'" 

Under the parallel columns is this verse : ''One sowetli and 
another reapeth. I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed 
no labor. Other men labored, and ye are entered into their 
labor." 

The church itself is a massive stone structure, the front sup- 
ported by heavy columns, with a graceful cupola and a gilded 
dome above it. It is embowered in immense elm and chestnut 
trees. It is near the old Adams home, and is owned and used 
by the unitarian congregation of Quincy, with which the 
Adamses were associated. 




^^^^^v 





^y7:^^^^^ 



NGRAVEC Er.PHEESSL, roR WE AVEH S " UVE s , ., „ GH/.VES 




CHAPTER IV. 



THOMAS JEFFEESON. 

Thikd President op the United States. 



HIS AKCESTRY. 



'HE common maxim, that "blood will tell/' is as well 
enforced in the case of Thomas Jefferson as of George 
Washington, or any other conspicuous character. 
f^i^^ Though it must never be forgotten that some other things 
"will tell/' also. Work will tell; virtue will tell; per- 
sistent effort will tell ; manhood, worth, courage will tell ; 
all good qualities have a telling force. Not all good blood tells 
for great character. In families of the best blood, only a few 
become conspicuous. Though good blood is a good thing, there 
are better things — strong mind; noble will; virtuous heart; 
resolute high-mindedness. 

The ancestors of Thomas Jefferson, on his father's side, were 
of good Welsh stock, occupying good places in society in the 
mother country, and exhibiting strong force of character and 
rightness of purpose. They did not deteriorate in their change 
of home. The forest did not hurt them ; the new experiences 
rather developed their power. 

Virginia was begun as a settlement as early as 1607, thirteen 

years before the Mayflower reached Plymouth Eock. The 

ancestors of Jefferson were some of the early comers. They 

took up large landed estates, and became thrifty and influential. 

Peter Jefferson, the father of Thomas, was born February 

119 



120 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

29, 1708. His early education was neglected, but he made it 
up as well as he could, by much reading and intelligent obser- 
vation. He learned surveying, and did much good service in 
that line in the early days of Virginia. He was the intimate 
friend of William Eandolph, of Tuckahoe, and the preferred 
suitor for the hand of tlie oldest daughter of Isham Eandolph. 
Three years before he was married he "patented," as it was 
called, a thousand acres of land on the James river, which 
included the tract and hill since called Monticello, and went 
about preparing for a home. He was married to Jane Ean- 
dolph in 1738. The Eandolphs were English people of opu- 
lence and high standing. They were educated and influential ; 
had large landed estates; kept up old English customs prevalent 
among the gentry, . and did what they could to renew old 
England in America. It was their expectation to see great 
estates and rich scenes of opulence and taste all over the rich 
Virginia lands. 

Peter Jefferson was a strong, large, independent, honest and 
warm-hearted man. He had cultivated a strong taste for litera- 
ture, and read many of the old poets with hearty appreciation. 

Thomas Jefferson, the subject of this sketch, was born April 
2, 1743, and was the third child, Jane and Mary being older. 
Six other children constituted the family group. 

HIS EDUCATION". 

At five years old he was sent to an English school, in which 
he learned the rudiments of an education. An evidence of an 
early activity of his mind is given, of his remembering when two 
years old of being handed uj) on a pillow to a slave and being 
carried on horseback when the family moved to Tuckahoe for a 
time. A year or two later he remembered, Avhen his dinner was 
delayed, of going out and repeating the Lord's prayer, in the 
hope of sooner getting his dinner. Few memories go back even 
to the third year. 

At nine years old, on the return of the family to Shad well, 
their home, he was placed in the school of Mr. Douglas, a Scotch 



THOMAS JEFFEKSON. 131 

clergyman, who taught him in Latin, Greek and French. While 
here his father died, leaving him at fourteen years of age to the 
sole care of his mother. This is another instance of a widow's 
son rising to greatness and worth, by the inspiration and help 
of a mother's wisdom and love. It is recorded of her that she 
was a beautiful and accomplished woman; cheerful, with a fund 
of humor and fond of writing letters. Well educated as she was 
for her time, with these things related of her, it is evident that 
the literary talent was in her, though developed only in her 
friendly letters. As both father and mother gave evidence of 
literary taste, and both belonged to strong families, and the 
mother especially to one of the most intellectual and vigorous 
families in the colony, it is clear that on grounds of heredity it 
would be reasonable to expect good literary abilities in their 
children. Thomas showed a combination of the physical and 
intellectual qualities of both parents. His father was large and 
muscular; his mother slender and fine-fibered. He was tall, 
slender, agile and closely made. He had his father's strength 
and his mother's fiber and endurance. From the accounts given 
of the two, Thomas was a genuine combination of the leading 
qualities of both. 

Added to this favorable heredity bias toward literary pur- 
suits, there was the early training in language, having begun 
Latin, Greek and French as early as nine years of age. To his 
susceptible and imaginative nature, this early training in lan- 
guage must have given a strong bent toward a close observation 
of the elegance and finish and force of complete forms of sjjeech, 
and an appreciation of the thought couched in what he read. 
Books early became his boon companions. Their thoughts be- 
canio his thoughts. The humor, piquancy, liveliness of his 
mother, must have acted on the strong talent received from both 
parents, as yeast in bread, to give it ferment, stir and uplift. 
He drew nourishment from her brain as well as breast. Brainy 
forces went into his original make-up, and brainy influences were 
about him from the beginning. 

Still more: when his father died, he left the request that 
Thomas should be sent to college, so that from that time the 



123 Ol^R PRESIDENTS. 

boy's mind began to shape itself to this course, and familiarize 
itself with its coming career. 

With his strong and delicate nature, and the early influences 
that educated him, it is easy to see that he must grow up to be 
a sort of natural harp through which the winds of a revolu- 
tionary period would blow to make strong and stirring music. 
He was born to be a force in the world. 

His father was a surveyor, and traversed all the valleys and 
hills of that fine country on foot. He became a footman of the 
woods, and learned to love their wild retreats. He had, too, 
the hunter's eye and taste, and led his son to find health and 
delight in the woods and on the mountains. This gave him an 
intimate acquaintance with nature, and filled his mind with 
figures and forces which much enriched his literary and intel- 
lectual work in after years. 

The loss of his father, doubtless, deeply impressed his young 
mind, and the intimacy with his mother after he was thrown 
wholly upon her for counsel and guidance, further deepened his 
thoughtfulness, and ripened and enriched his character. With 
such a constitution, the circumstances which surrounded his 
early life did much to educate and develop him. 

In 1760 he entered William and Mary college at Williams- 
burg. This town was then the capital of the colony, the seat of 
learning, and the gathering place of the dignity, learning, and 
worth of Virginia. It gave him an opportunity to be for awhile 
in this center of the leading men of the times in this oldest 
English colony in America and to form the acquaintance of some 
of them. The educating influence of great men on susceptible 
and ambitious youth, is very great. 

On his way to Williamsburg he spent a few days at the 
residence of Colonel Nathan Dandridge, and made the acquaint- 
ance of Patrick Henry, then a young man who had failed as a 
merchant and was idling away his time in the vicinity of his 
home in the frolics and dances of the young people, and in fish- 
ing, hunting and story telling, "His passion," said Mr. Jeffer- 
son of him afterward, "was fiddling, dancing and pleasantry." 
Jefferson was fond of the violin, the dance, and every social 



THOxMAS JEFFEKSOX. 123 

pleasantry. Now, at seventeen, ' the quaint, piquant, brilliant, 
half-j)hilosopher, half vagrant young man Henry, had many 
charms for him. They were much unlike, but there were deep 
points of similarity, which made them friends for life. Not 
many montlis afterward, Mr. Henry called on Jefferson and 
informed him that he had studied law, and was at the capital to 
obtain a license to practice, indicating the quickness with which 
great things were done in those early days. 

Jefferson was admitted to an advanced class in college and 
continued there two years. Williamsburg had many attractions 
for him the first year which interfered somewliat with his study; 
but the second year he gave himself to unremitting work, study- 
ing fifteen hours a day and making rapid progress. 

As a student he was about equally fond of mathematics and 
the classics, botli of which branches of learning he continued to 
pursue, more or less, through life. He became a good Latin and 
Greek scholar, and read many ancient works in these ancient 
languages. He became familiar with written French; learned 
something of Anglo-Saxon, Spanish and German. His early 
literary inclinations became more and more established, till 
early in his life he became a general scholar for his times, and a 
devoted friend of books as well as men. 

His mathematical professor in college was Doctor Samuel 
Small, who soon conceived a great interest in young Jefferson, 
and not only instructed him with great care, but made him a 
personal friend and companion, and did much to sluipe his life. 
Indeed, Mr. Jefferson said, late in life, that the instruction and 
intercourse of Doctor Small "probably fixed the destinies of his 
life." 

In his youth he was away from home and among strangers, 
with none to guard or counsel him, and late in life he wrote of 
of this to a young relative similarly situated: "I had the good 
fortune to become acquainted very early with some characters of 
very high standing, and to feel the incessant wisli that I could 
ever become Avhat they were. Under temptations and difficulties, 
I would ask myself : Wh:it would Doctor Small, Mr. Wythe 
or Peyton Randolph do in this situation? What course in it will 



124 OUR PEESIDENTS. 

insure me their approbation? I am certain that this mode of 
deciding on my conduct, tended more to correctness than any- 
reasoning powers I possessed. Knowing the even and dignified 
line they pursued, I could never doubt for a moment which of 
two courses would be in character for them." * * * ''Be 
assured, my young friend, that these little returns into ourselves, 
this self-catechising habit, is not trifling nor useless, but leads 
to the prudent selection and steady pursuit of what is right." 

Here is a hint at the shaping influences of his early life; they 
came from men whom he knew to respect and honor, from 
teachers whom he loved, from characters whose course of life 
had the approval of the good and true. In the same letter, he 
says: "I was often thrown into the society of horse-racers, card- 
players, fox-hunters, scientific and professional men, and of dig- 
nified men; and many a time have I asked myself, in the 
enthusiastic moment of the death of a fox, the victory of a 
favorite horse, the issue of a question eloquently argued at the 
bar, or in the great council of the nation: Well, which of these 
kinds of reputation shall I prefer? That of a horse- jockey^ a 
fox-hunter, an orator, or the honest advocate of my country's 
rights?" Here was the young man settling his own destiny, in 
the midst of all sorts of characters which he might choose for 
models. He loved the fleet horse, the chase, the social 
pleasantry? He was fond of physical sports, the dance, the 
wild-wood ramble. He saw men before him giving their lives to 
such things. Should he do likewise ? He loved books also, and 
saw the glory of a noble life, and men about him who were 
examples of right living and manly dignity. Should he follow 
them? When a young man seriously debated such questions in 
his mind, could there be much doubt as to which way he would 
decide to go? 

This was the formative period of his character. He had 
been well reared and instructed in his home and church, which 
was the church of England; he was warm-hearted, enthusiastic, 
social, imaginative; he was healthy, strong, buoyant in spirit; 
now he had met the world in all its characters, and the question 
had come to him: With what class shall I identify myself ? 



THOMAS JEFPERSOK. 125 

After leaving college, through the aid of Dr. Small he 
entered the law office of George Wythe, and became the 
acquaintance and friend of Governor Fauquier, one of the ablest 
men of that time. He mentions in his memoir, that he and 
Wythe and Doctor Small often dined with the governor, forming 
a social quartette, and that " to these habitual conversations he 
owed much instruction." It seems clear that to good books and 
good men, Jefferson was much indebted. They did much to 
make him. Yet he had the wisdom to choose to be educated 
and directed by them. 

Governor Fauquier made him a companion of all hours; they 
practiced on musical instruments together and talked on gay 
and serious subjects as though equals, — one the acknowledged 
great man and gentleman of the state, the other a youth of 
twenty-one. This intimacy indicates an early developement of 
talent and manly power, and a personal magnetism above his 
years, m young Jefferson. 

George Wythe was one of the most erudite and accomplished 
lawyers of his day, and young Jefferson felt himself hajDjiy in 
enjoying his instruction and companionship. Jefferson's exten- 
sive reading of the best authors; his fine manners, and cheerful, 
social enthusiasm, won such friends for him. And there can be 
no doubt but the bright promise of his coming career was 
reflected to these men, in his unusual wisdom and brilliancy. 

To the study of law he gave five years. If his college course 
was short, his law course was long, and he made it a thorough 
study. The summers he sjient at Shadwell, his home, and the 
winters at Williamsburg; and at both places kept up his rigid 
college habits of studying fifteen hours a day. No native 
talents, no brilliancy of mind or favoring opportunity, made 
him the man he came to be without hard study. Till he was 
twenty-four he plied the work of his education with diligence 
and plodding fidelity. 

PERSONAL APPEARANCE. 

He was tall and slender in comparison, standing six feet two 
inches in height. His face, though angular and far from beau- 



126 OUR PRESIDEJCTS. 

tiful, beamed with intelligence, with benevolence, and with the 
eliecrf ul vivacity of a hap^iy, hopeful S2)irit. His complexion was 
ruddy and fair ; his hair was chestnut, of a reddish tinge, fine 
and soft ; his eyes of a liazel gray. He was lithe, active, grace- 
ful. His manners were simple and cordial. In conversation he 
was peculiarly agreeable, so much so, that in later years his 
enemies attributed to him a seductive influence through his art 
and charm of sj^eech. Possessing the accomplishments, he 
avoided the vices of the young Virginia gentry of the day. He 
did not gamble ; or drink ; or use tobacco ; or swear. He had 
an aversion to strong drink, and was temperate at the table. 
With frankness, heartiness, humane sympathies and sanguine 
hojDefulness, he had strong personal influence over those who 
came near him. This was Thomas Jefferson at twenty-four, 
when he entered upon the practice of law. 

MR. JEFFERSOlf A LAWYER. 

In 1767, Mr. Jefferson was admitted to the practice of law at 
the bar of his native state. He was well prepared for his pro- 
fession and met with success at once. His excellent connection 
with the good families of Virginia, his inherited fortune and his 
good personal Ijcaring, gave him his business. His register of cases 
shows sixty-eight for 1767; one hundred and fifteen for 1768; 
one hundred and ninety-eight for 1769; one hundred and 
twenty-one for 1770; one hundred and thirty-seven for 1771; 
one hundred and fifty-four for 1772; one hundred and twenty- 
seven for 1773; twenty-nine for 1774. It is probable that the 
troublesome times affected all business. These were his cases in 
the general court. He had much other legal business, accord- 
ing to the records left in his own writing. He had a strong 
legal mind which was recognized at once. While in the study 
and practice of law he made a collection of most of the early 
statutes of Virginia, and preserved them for later uses. 

It was a habit of his to classify his knowledge, his business, 
and multitudes of little matters that most men would not think 
worth the time of writing. His account books, keeping the 
items for different articles separately, as for meat, bread, etc.; 



THOMAS JEFFEllSOK". l^'H 

his expenses, the uiimber of persons in his family, the details of 
all his business — agricultural, legal, domestic — show a mind 
wonderfully given to a close observation of little things. He 
left an account carefully arranged and kept, of the earliest and 
latest appearance in the Washington market of thirty-seven 
different kinds of vegetables, during the whole eight years of 
his presidency. His garden book, farming book, weather 
record, expense accounts, notes on natural history, on Virginia, 
on reading, on legal study, and on almost everything that passed 
before him, show a remarkable interest in details. Had it not 
been for a fire which consumed his library and many of his pri- 
vate records, it is supposed he would have left almost his whole 
life in minute details. This not only indicates close powers of 
observation, but readiness to labor industriously to keep such 
extended accounts. 

MR. JEFFERSOK A LEGISLATOR. 

In 1769, Mr. Jefferson was elected a member of the House 
of Burgesses. Lord Botetourt had now become governor. He 
opened the House with the customary address. Mr. Jefferson, 
at the request of some of the older members, drew the respond- 
ing resolutions. 

The House passed spirited resolutions on the action of Par- 
liament in relation to Massachusetts. It reasserted the exclu- 
sive right of taxation in the colonies, their right to petition for 
a redress of grievances, and to procure the concurrenco of the 
other colonies therein. The House also remonstrated against 
the proposition in- Parliament to transport to England for trial 
persons in the colonies charged with treason. 

The governor, on hearing what the House had done, without 
waiting for official statements, dissolved the assembly. The 
following day the members met at the Apollo, the large hall of 
the Ealeigh tavern, and entered into an association, pledging 
themselves during the continuance of the act for raising revenue 
in America, not to import or purchase or use British merchan- 
dise ; and they recommended their constituents to join them in 
this pledge. 



128 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

Mr. Jefferson was one of the largest slave owners in Virginia, 
yet among the earliest movements he made was a proj)osition 
for the gradual emancipation of the slaves, but it was voted 
down by a strong majority. His humanity and political wis- 
dom were manifest in this proposition. He had many sympa- 
thizers in Virginia at that time, in his disbelief in slavery. 
Washington was one of them. From that time on this began to 
be a subject of serious thought with many just minds. 

JEFFERSON NOT A SPEAKER. 

Though a fluent, graceful conversationalist, and believed by 
his political enemies, later in life, to have almost seductive 
charms in this way, and though a most accomplished and vigor- 
ous writer, he yet was not a public speaker. It is said that 
some defect in his vocal organs made his throat dry and husky 
after a little while, so that his speaking became painful to him 
as well as to those who heard him. 

It is not often that the talent for speaking and writing is 
found in any marked degree in the same individual. They are 
separate talents, and for their marked exjaression require very 
different powers. Writing is a work of seclusion, done with 
deliberation, care, precision, with the mind bent upon accuracy, 
detail, elegance, finish, comj)leteness. It depends solely on the 
power, furnishing and taste of the writer. He writes out of 
himself. His inspiration is in his theme and his own soul. If 
he is full of and on fire with his subject, he writes to instruct, 
warn and captivate his reader. 

Speaking is a public act, in which the occasion, the audience, 
the voice, the face, the whole i^hysical man, enters in to form a 
part of the moving power. Often passion commands the hour, 
and summoning all the powers to its service, moves upon its 
point of attack with a sort of dashing, stunning, overwhelming 
force. 

Mr. Jefferson was the careful student, the close, pains- 
taking thinker, who, from wide observation of facts, drew his 
conclusions and arranged them into orderly systems. 



THOMAS JEFFERSOISr. 129 

Had his voice been all right, it is not likely he would have 
spoken with great power. His mind was organized to exj^ress 
itself with the pen rather than with the tongue. And had his 
mind been formed for the orator, it is altogether likely that his 
voice would have responded loyally, and his parched throat 
would have been oiled and active in the service of his mind. 

No contrast between the speaker and writer was ever more 
sharply drawn than between Mr, Jefferson and his friend, 
Patrick Henry. 

LOSS BY FIRE, 

On the first of February, 1770, the family mansion at Shad- 
well, " with every paper he had in the world and almost every 
book,^' and all his father^s papers and books, was consumed by 
fire. Had it been their cost-value in money, he said, "it would 
not have cost me a sigh." 

Later in life he was wont to have his facetious story over this 
fire, as the news was brought to him by one of his negroes. 

"But, were none of my books saved?" he asked. "No, 
massa," was the doleful reply; "but," with a quick brightening 
face, he said, "we saved de fiddle." 

The fiddle was dear to Mr. Jefferson, not only because he 
loved its music, but because it was intimately associated with 
his sister Jane, the eldest of the family who had died some five 
years before, at about twenty-five years of age. He regarded her 
as a person of a very superior mind and of great excellence of 
character. She was almost his constant companion in the later 
years of his life. She shared much of his study and reading, 
held similar opinions and had kindred sentiments. She was 
devout and loved her church, the church of England in which 
they were brought up, and was an excellent singer. He was a 
good bass singer, and entered heartily into much of the music of 
his church, which he believed was the best in the world. This 
music they sang much together accompanied with his violin. 
It was their practice to go often into some grove, or quiet 
natural retreat, and sing their favorite pieces, enjoy together 
the natural scenery, and what was more to them, enjoy each 
9 



130 OUR I'RESl DENTS. 

other's society. This violin saved from the fire, was a perpetual 
reminder of his sister and those halcyon seasons of sacred affec- 
tion and communion. 

The year before the loss of the old family mansion, Mr. 
Jefferson had begun to build a residence for himself on Monti- 
cello, a portion or wing of what was afterward his famous house. 
Into that a part of the family went, and the rest into the over- 
seer's house. 

MAREIAGE. 

New Year's day, 1772, was made memorable to Thomas 
Jefferson and Mrs. Martha Skelton, by their marriage. She 
was the youthful widow of Bathurst Skelton, Esq., and daugh- 
ter of John Wayles, a lawyer of eminence in his time. She is 
represented by the annalists of the time as beautiful, accom- 
plished and sensible ; as being a fine singer, and playing skill- 
fully on the spinet and harpsichord ; as joining her voice with 
Jefferson's and her instruments with his violin to produce the 
music in which their souls flowed together; as having many 
suitors and great wealth, bringing to him a fortune fully equal 
to his own. On the day of their marriage there was a snow 
storm which thickened as they went, so that the last eight miles 
of their journey had to be made on horse-back, after dark and 
alone. They reached Monticello through two feet of snow, 
after the servants were all abed and the house cold, to find no 
supper, no welcome, no light or fire, and only such cheer as 
their young hearts could produce. But chilly and forbidding 
as was the beginning of their wedded life, they turned it all into 
the joy of triumph and made a world for each other that was 
full of sunshine and success. Such is the mystery of young love. 

Their united fortunes made them wealthy. His estate was 
five thousand acres and hers forty thousand acres; but hers was 
so encumbered with debts that he had to sell much of it to own 
it clear. He had forty-two slaves and she one hundred and 
thirty-five. He had an income, before his marriage, of five 
thousand dollars a year. His income after was uncertain till 
he had cleared her estate of its indebtedness. This condition of 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 131 

his affairs for a few years, gave opportunity for his political 
enemies to make capital against him as a bad financier. He 
seems to have been a sagacious business man ; orderly in his 
habits; prompt and exact in his dealings ; careful in expendi- 
tures, yet generous according to his circumstances; keeping 
always exact records of all his affairs to the smallest details. 

It is clear to see from the style of life in which he and his 
associates were reared, that colonial Virginia, and that whole 
sections of America, was looked to from England as a new and 
ample field for the extension of the great English estates ; for 
the broadening and enriching of the English aristocracy; for an 
increased support of the English crown, and a safe depository of 
English power. Mr. Jefferson's debts to be paid were chiefly in 
England; his business was largely with England ; and so was that 
of all the great southern estates. The people got their styles 
of life from England. Society in Virginia was a transcript of 
society in England. 

Under these circumstances, it was not to be expected that 
democracy would spring up in Virginia; that popular govern- 
ment would find its stout advocates in the House of Burgesses 
and on the great estates of the Old Dominion; that the repre- 
sentatives of the old and Avealthy families of England settled in 
America would dissent from the English view of government, 
and become the enthusiastic leaders of a republican order of 
society. But so it turned out. The newness and freedom of 
American life gave a new order of manhood; produced new 
thinkers and actors; developed a new philosophy of society and 
humanity, and led American intelligence and justice to see the 
defects in the English society and administration of govern- 
ment. And these men of the largest calibre, like Washington 
and Jefferson, though inheriting most from England, were 
among the first to see the English faults. 

Among the things they first de^Drecated in their new society 
was human slavery. They felt its injustice and foresaw its dire- 
ful evils, and they sought its gradual abolition, but were over- 
ruled. Had Jefferson's proposition in the House of Burgesses 
to that effect been accepted, and slavery in Virginia gone out as 



132 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

it did in New York and New England, the United States would 
have been double gainers by their independence ; the great 
hindering evils of slavery would have been avoided; the section- 
alism of our experience would not have been known ; and the 
great civil war and its terrific loss of property, energy and life, 
would not have been. Jefferson was called the philosopher in 
his day; and the worth of his philosojihy is far clearer now than 
it was to most people then. 

He is a proof that men do sometimes rise above their circum- 
stances ; that humanity may grow to be a powerful and con- 
trolling sentiment in the midst of slavery; that democracy may 
have a vigorous development in the midst of aristocratic 
surroundings. 

THE APPROACHIlSrG CONFLICT. 

The House of Burgesses met in the spring of 1773. An event 
had just occurred to arouse such alert souls as Jefferson's to a 
sense of danger to come. The Gasper, a British vessel, sta- 
tioned in Narraganset bay to enforce the obnoxious revenue laws, 
had been decoyed aground, and burned. Parliament immedi- 
ately passed an act "^for the better securing of His Majesty's 
ships, docks, etc.,'' which made punishable with death the least 
harm done to anything pertaining to the British marine service, 
and the transportation for trial of any one accused of such 
harm. Against such transportation Jefferson had offered a 
resolution in 1769. Now he joined with Patrick Henry, the 
Lees and Mr. Carr, his brother-in-law, to offer a series of reso- 
lutions against the injustice of such transportation, and against 
all laws "tending to deprive the colonies of their ancient, legal 
and constitutional rights," and in favor of seeking the earliest 
information of what parliament should do, and of appointing a 
committee of correspondence with the other colonies, to act in 
unison in opposition to British aggression, and especially 
instructing the committee of correspondence "to inform them- 
selves particularly of the principles and authority on which was 
constituted a court of inquiry, said to have been lately held in 
Rhode Island, with powers to transport Dersons accused of 



THOMAS JEFFEKSON. 133 

oifenses committed in America to j)laces beyond- the seas to be 
tried." The resohitions are supposed to have been drafted by 
Mr. Jefferson, offered in a very telling speech by Mr. Carr, and 
adopted without a dissenting vote by the House. This was one 
of the first movements for a committee of consultation from all 
the colonies. It was one of the seeds which ripened into a 
Colonial Congress. 

The governor immediately dissolved the House. But the 
committee met the next day and prepared a circular to the 
colonies containing a copy of the resolutions, with a request that 
they might be laid before their assemblies, and asking them to 
appoint "some person or persons of their respective bodies to 
communicate from time to time with the Virginia committee." 

Mr. Jefferson is said to have believed that this was the germ 
of colonial union. But whether it was or not, it is proof of a 
kindredness of sentiment, and a preparedness for union and 
action in Virginia and Massachusetts. And this sentiment soon 
reached all the colonies. 

During the spring session of the Burgesses in 1774, the news 
of the Boston port bill reached Virginia. Mr. Jefferson, believ- 
ing that something startling should be done to arouse the people 
to a sense of the danger to their liberties, gathered about him a 
few kindred spirits in consultation. They agreed uj)on a reso- 
lution appointing a day of fasting and prayer. And as the 
Boston port bill was to go into operation the first of June, they 
fixed upon that day for a public fast day. They consulted with 
some of the older and more religious members, and got such a 
good understanding that it was agreed to without a dissenting 
vote. So on the day that the port of Boston was blockaded by 
British assumption of power, the jDCople of Virginia were pray- 
ing for the people of Boston and the preservation of their liber- 
ties. Mr. Jefferson said : "If the pulse of the people beat 
calmly under such an exj)eriment by the new and until now 
unheard of executive power of the British Parliament, another 
and another will be tried, till the measure of despotism be 
filled up." 

The governor dissolved the assembly the next day after the 



134 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

jDassage of this resolution. And the next day the members met 
at the Apollo hall and talked freely of English tyranny and 
what should be done about it ; and they talked of a congress of 
the colonies for mutual consultation. They further agreed that 
a convention should be held at Williamsburg, August 1, to 
learn the result of the proposed colonial congress, and if such a 
congress shall be held, to appoint delegates to it. Here was the 
spirit and intelligence of Massachusetts in the Old Dominion. 

When the members of the assembly returned to their homes 
they invited the clergy to address the people in all their 
churches on fast day ; and they generally did so, awakening a 
profound interest. Mr. Jefferson said : ''The effect of the day 
through the whole colony was like a shock of electricity, arous- 
ing every man and placing him erect and solidly on his center." 

The freeholders in all the counties held meetings to apjDoint 
delegates to the coming convention and express their views in 
resolutions. 

Mr. Jefferson, on account of sickness, was unable to attend 
the August convention, but sent in "a summary view" of the 
situation in a long document, which Edmund Burke, in 
England, styled "A Summary View of the Eights of British 
America." It contained the most of the statements afterward 
put into the Declaration of Independence, only more radically 
stated ; and denied that the British crown had any rights on 
American soil, because the people of America, without the king's 
help, have made it what it is. It was a document probably 
more radical than anything Otis, Adams, or Henry had ever 
said. In it, he said : " The God who gave us life, gave us lib- 
erty at the same time ; the hand of force may destroy, but 
cannot disjoin them." 

The Colonial Congress met in Philadelphia on the fourth of 
September. Peyton Eandolph, one of Virginia's most accom- 
plished and honored citizens, was made its president. 

In the mean time nearly all the counties of Virginia organ- 
ized committees of safety. On the twentieth of March, 1775, a 
second Virginia convention was held at Richmond. Mr. Jeffer- 
son was a member from his county. This was one of the most 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 135 

memorable assemblies ever held on this continent. It had many 
of Virginia's best men, such as Richard H. Lee, Pendleton, Bland, 
Wythe, Nicholas, Harrison, Mason, Page, Henry, Jefferson. It 
was composed of the conservatives and radicals. The old men 
of wealth and dignity were there, and the young men who Avere 
for forward movements. The old men spoke softly of England, 
praised the British constitution, and talked in conciliatory words, 
which were as "wormwood and gall" to Patrick Henry, who 
rose and moved that " the colony be immediately put in a state 
of defense, and that * * * be a committee to prepare a 
plan for embodying, arming and disciplining such a number of 
men as may be sufficient for that purpose." This startling 
proposition was most painful to the old conservative members. 
It sounded like rebellion. The young members, Lee, Jefferson, 
Mason, Page, were quick in its support. It was on this occasion 
that Patrick Henry made the flaming speech which has immor- 
talized him. It was in support of his resolution. He said, 
** war is inevitable ; we must fight." The story of that speech 
has thrilled Americans for a hundred years. Wirt, in his life of 
Henry, has given a graphic picture of the scene and the speech. 
Many eye-and-ear witnesses have described it. Mr. Randall, in 
his life of Jefferson, gives this account as related to him by an 
old Baptist clergyman who heard it. "Henry rose with an un- 
earthly fire burning in his eye. He commenced somewhat 
calmly — but the smothered excitement began more and more to 
play upon his features and thrill in the tones of his voice. The 
tendons of his neck stood out white and rigid 'like whipcord.' 
His voice rose louder and louder, until the walls of the building 
and all within them, seemed to shake and rock in its tremendous 
vibrations. Finally his pale face and glaring eye became terri- 
ble to look upon. Men leaned forward in their seats, with 
their heads strained forward, their faces pale and their eyes 
glaring like the speaker's. His last exclamation, ' Give me 
liberty or give me death,' was like the shout of a leader which 
turns back the rout of battle ! " 

The old clergyman said when Mr. Henry sat down, "he (the 
auditor) 'felt sick with excitement.' Every eye gazed entranced 



136 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

on Henry. It seemed as if a word from him would have led to 
any wild explosion of violence. Men looked beside themselves." 
Wirt in his account of it, says: " Eichard H. Lee arose and sup- 
ported Mr. Henry with his usual spirit and elegance. But his 
melody was lost amid the agitations of that ocean which the 
master sjoirit of the storm had lifted upon high. That super- 
natural voice still sounded in their ears and shivered along their 
arteries. They heard in every pause the cry of liberty or death. 
They became impatient of speech. Their souls were on fire for 
action." 

Mr. Henry's resolution for arming the colony was passed by 
a decided majority ; and he, George Washington and Thomas 
Jefferson were put on the committee, with others, to carry out 
its provisions. The committee reported a i)lan on the twenty- 
fifth of March, and the convention accepted it. 

The convention chose Mr. Jefferson to fill the place of Pey- 
ton Eandolph in the next Colonial Congress. 

On the night of the twentieth of April, 1775, a British armed 
vessel lying in the James river, by order of Governor Dunmore, 
entered Williamsburg and carried off all the powder in the maga- 
zine. This awakened much feeling. It was done two days after 
the battle of Lexington, the news of which soon came, to verify 
Henry's speech and to call many Virginians to arms. 

On the first of June, the House of Burgesses was convened to 
consider Lord North's ''conciliatory proj)osition." Peyton Ean- 
dolph returned from the Colonial Congress to preside, and Mr. Jef- 
ferson had been elected to supply his place ; but Mr. Eandolph was 
anxious that Mr. Jefferson should draft a reply to Lord North. 
This reply rings with the spirit of all Mr. Jefferson's great state 
papers of that great period. 

The eleventh of June, 1775, Mr. Jefferson took his seat in 
Congress. He was greeted with great cordiality. He was then 
but little past thirty-two years of age. His fame as a writer had 
gone before him. His "Summary of the Eights of British 
America," the "Albemarle Eesolutions," and other convention 
papers, had stirred the whole country ; and now he brought with 
him his reply to Lord North, more full than anything he had 



THOMAS JEFFEKSOX. 137 

written. All tlie most advanced members received him with 
open arms. John Adams said of him: "Mr. Jefferson had the 
reputation of a masterly pen"; and again, "he brought with 
him a reputation for literature, science, and a happy talent for 
composition." Of him, as a member, Mr. Adams says: "Though 
a silent member in Congress, he was so prompt, frank, explicit, 
and decisive u]3on committees and in conversation — not even 
Samuel Adams was more so — that he soon seized upon my heart." 

Five days after Mr. Jefferson took his seat, he was appointed 
on a committee to draft a declaration of the causes of taking up 
arms. He made a draft, but it was too radical to please John 
Dickinson, also a member of the committee. So Mr. Dickinson 
recast it, making it new with the exception of the last four par- 
agraphs. Mr. Jefferson was one of the most advanced thinkers 
and actors, while Mr. Dickinson was very conservative ; and yet 
they were intimate friends to the close of their lives. 

Lord North's "conciliatory proposition " came before Con- 
gress for its answer. A committee was appointed to draft an 
answer July 23. Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John 
Adams and Eichard H. Lee were made that committee. The 
committee chose Jefferson to draft the answer. It constitutes 
another of his great state papers, and was the last great state- 
ment of the differences between America and England by way 
of conciliation. Up to this time, and after, all the great lead- 
ers, the Adamses, Jay, Washington, Jefferson, desired to remain 
in union with England. They craved for England a great 
empire, and wanted to be a part of that empire. They saw, far 
better than English statesmen, the possibilities of that empire, 
and yielded this dream of British greatness, only from stern 
necessity. They regarded themselves as forced to an unnatural 
and cruel divorce. 

On the ninth of November, 1775, a letter was received in 
Congress from Richard Penn and Arthur Lee, who had carried 
the second petition to the king, that "no answer would be 
given to it." This made the prospect of conciliation most dark. 
From this time the leaders were compelled to face the probabil- 
ity of a final separation. The dream of a great British empire 



138 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

must vanish. Little by little they began to talk about the 
almost certain separation. 

Tlie king opened the next Parliament with bitter denuncia- 
tion of the colonists as rebels, and determinatoin to punish them 
into submission. News of this reached America in the spring 
of 1776. From this time it became a question of whether the 
colonists could stand more punishing than the irate mother 
could give. 

About this time Paine's '' Common Sense" was published, 
and did much to convince many that separation and war for 
independence were absolute necessities. Public sentiment be- 
gan to set strongly in this direction. Congress kept up with 
public sentiment. 

On the tenth of May, John Adams offered, and on the fifteenth 
Congress passed, a resolution advising all the colonies to form 
governments for themselves. On the eleventh of June, 1776, 
congress resolved to appoint a committee of five to prepare a 
declaration of independence. Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, 
Benjamin Franklin, Koger Sherman and Robert E, Livingston 
were that committee, chosen by ballot. John Adams says Jef- 
ferson had one more vote than any of the rest, and on that 
account, he thought, he was made chairman of the committee. 

Mr. Jefferson, at the instance of the committee, and, as 
Adams suggests, because he was the best writer, and prob- 
ably because he had written several papers covering the general 
subject; and, still further, because he was connected with no 
clique, wrote the declaration. Dr. Franklin and Mr. Adams 
made a few verbal changes; and it was read in Congress June 
28. July 2, it was taken up for discussion, and two days were 
spent over it, according to Eandall, Jefferson's biographer. 
The censure of the people of England and the rebuke of slavery 
were taken from it ; and it was passed on the evening of 
July 4. Mr. Bancroft says the vote on it was taken July 2. At 
any rate, July 4 has been fixed upon as the day of its passage. 

On the day of the passage of the declaration, Franklin, 
Adams and Jefferson were appointed to prepare a seal for The 
United States of America. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 139 

Henceforth, a new name and a new nation are in the world. 
The declaration was the turning point in the great struggle. 
The advanced patriots were stirred to greater confidence ; the 
moderate men were advanced to patriots; the cool were warmed; 
the tories were marked and silenced; the people at large were 
kindled to enthusiasm; foreign nations were made friendly, and 
France a genuine friend. It set before the armies and the peo- 
ple a definite object. It began the apprenticeship of a people 
in nation-making and defending. 

KATION-BUILDIN-Q. 

Now began everywhere the great work of nation-building. 
In every state there were to be constructed state, county, town 
and city governments, according with the great principles of the 
declaration. It was an era of education in this work. The 
people were obliged to study the new work of government- 
making. It was practical study. There were no models for the 
government they had to make. They had started a nation on a 
new plan ; and they were to build it by the principles of 
righteousness and common sense, recognizing every man's place 
and right in the new structure. 

Mr. Jefferson went home to Virginia to engage at once, and 
with all his miglit, in the reconstruction of Virginia. In no 
state was the work more radical. Virginia was thoroughly 
English. Its land, for the most part, was divided into large 
estates, which were entailed and descended to the oldest son. 
All the laws and usages conformed thereto. 

The Church of England was the same *' establishment" in 
Virginia as in the British isle. To reconstruct such a state on 
republican principles required a re-making of all the laws and 
all the usages of society. To such a work there was great oppo- 
sition. The old property-owners, the oldest sons, the old 
lawyers, the conservative people generally, were against such a 
reconstruction as the principles of the declaration required. 
To carry all the people peacefully forward into the new order of 
things was an almost infinite task. To conquer a peace with 



liO OUR PRESIDENTS. 

England was the smallest part of the work of our revolutionary 
fathers. From end to end of the new nation had to begin this 
process of reconstruction ; and this while the war was going on, 
and the business and the growth of the country were almost 
stojiped. It makes one almost dizzy just to read the titles of 
the bills which Jefferson introduced into the House of Burgesses 
at the session after the declaration of independence. But he 
had such suavity and good will, and such strong following 
among the younger members, that the state at once took its 
place by the side of Massachusetts, and held it till the nation 
was organized and on its feet among the great nations of the 
earth. Massachussetts in the north and Virginia in the south 
were the two arms of the new nation, and they worked together 
and with equal efficiency. 

In 1776, Mr. Jefferson gave as one reason for declining the 
French mission, that he saw "that the laboring oar was really 
at home." 

In 1777 he wrote to Dr. Franklin: "With respect to Vir- 
ginia. * * * The people seemed to have laid aside the 
monarchical and taken up the republican government, with as 
much ease as would have attended their throwing off an old 
and putting on a new garment. Not a single throe has attended 
this important transformation. A half dozen aristocratic 
gentlemen, agonizing under the loss of pre-eminence, have some- 
times ventured their sarcasm on our political metamorjahosis. 
They have been fitter objects of pity than of punishment." 

He took a roseate view of the difficulties he had met, because 
he had been successful. 

Before his state was reconstructed the tide of war had swept 
that way. Massachusetts was first attacked, but with such ill 
success that it was soon determined to attack Xew York, and 
Avith a foothold there, break New England from the southern 
colonies by a blow from the north through Lake Ohamplain. 
Burgoyne's defeat frustrated that plan. Then the destruction 
of the south became the British object, and the armies by sea 
and land were pushed that way. 



THOMAS JEFFERSOK. 141 



MR. JEFFERSON" MADE GOVERNOR. 

On the first day of June, 1779, Mr. Jefferson was elected 
governor of Virginia. Patrick Henry was governor before him. 
These two men, who had been most active in the cause of repub- 
lican government in Virginia, were the first and second to 
occupy the chair of state under the new form. 

This was the gloomiest time of the war. France had 
declared for America and promised help. The alliance gave the 
Americans a fatal sense of security. The army was decreas- 
ing and it was difficult to renew. The whole tide of war was 
setting southward, and Virginia was selected for the severest 
punishment. Georgia had been, for the most part, subjugated. 
The Carolinas were crippled, and armies moving upon Virginia. 
The most of her regular soldiers were in defeated divisions of the 
general army. There was no outlook for Virginia but that she 
must fight. Henry's words, "We must fight," had come true. 
The people must fight. The British were at their doors and 
coming with fire, and rapine and ruin, as well as with sword. 
They were vieing with the red savages of the forest in their 
cruelty. The word went out among the people of the Old 
Dominion, and they came from their homes to meet the coming 
foe. Washington hastened home with his northern army; the 
French came with their ships, and help from all around, and 
Cornwallis was cooped in Yorktown, so it turned out that the 
war which began in Massachusetts, with Virginia's sympathy, 
ended on Virginia's soil. Governor Jefferson did everything 
in his power for the defense of his state and conquering a peace 
for the nation. Governor Jefferson's home was a mark for the 
enemy. His stock, slaves, crops and lands were wasted; yet he 
pushed on the war by every force he could raise in his state. 

Brief must be the reference to the important events of these 
great times. 

MRS. JEFFERSON'S DEATH. 

On the fifteenth of June, 1781, Congress associated Mr. Jef- 
ferson with Adams, Franklin, Jay and Lawrens, to settle the 



143 OUR PHESIDEKTS. 

terms of peace with Great Britain-, at Paris. But the sickness of 
his wife prevented him from going. Her health had declined 
through several years. He had several times returned from the 
legislature and from congress on account of her failing health. 
On a number of occasions he had refused to accept important 
public trusts, because he could not force himself from her in 
her feebleness. Their union was one of mutual affection and 
honor. They had a pride as well as a pleasure in each other. 
Their home had become a center of the great and good of Vir- 
ginia. They had six children born to them, and the children 
of his widowed sister, Mrs. Carr, lived with them almost as 
though their own. Mrs. Jefferson grew feebler through some 
years. Her constitution seemed slowly to give way. When she 
came to require constant care, her husband spent his entire time 
with her. For weeks he sat by her bed, administered to her 
her medicine, and every care. She died September 6, 1782, in 
the thirty-fifth year of her age. 

Mrs Eandolph, his eldest daughter, many years after wrote 
of her mother's sickness and death, and her father's care and 
sorrow, as follows : 'Tor four months that she lingered, he was 
never out of calling ; when not at her bedside, he was writing in 
a small room which opened immediately at the head of her bed. 
A moment before the closing scene, he was led from the room 
almost in a state of insensibility, by his sister, Mrs. Carr, who, 
with great difficulty, got him into his library, where he fainted, 
and remained so long insensible, that they feared he would never 
revive. The scene that followed I did not witness ; but the 
violence of his emotion — when almost by stealth I entered his 
room at night — to this day I dare not -trust myself to describe. 
He kept his room three weeks, and I was never a moment from 
his side. He walked almost incessantly night and day, only 
lying down occasionally when nature was completely exhausted, 
on a pallet that had been brought in during his long fainting 
fit. When at last he left his room, he rode out, and from that 
time he was almost incessantly on horse-back, rambling about 
the mountain in the least frequented roads, and just as often 
through the woods." 



THOMAS JEFFEBSON. 143 

After Mr. JefEerson's death, forty-four years later, were found 
in one of his private drawers, locks of hair, and other little 
souvenirs of his wife and each of his children. They were done 
up in separate envelopes, ''with words of fond endearment 
written on the mementos." 

Very tender was the heart of this great man. 

APPOINTED TO isTEGOTIATE PEACE AT PARIS. 

After the death of his wife Mr. Jefferson was again appointed 
by Congress minister plenipotentiary to negotiate peace with 
Great Britain. He proceeded to Philadelphia and then to Balti- 
more ; but the dangers of capture were so great that it was not 
thought best for him to sail till news of a provisional treaty 
came, and so he did not go, but returned to Monticello. After 
the war of the revolution there was a call for the best talent of 
every colony for the state and national legislatures. Mr. Jeffer- 
son labored industriously in both. He was kept a member of 
Congress and did excellent service in it till he was again appointed 
to a foreign mission. 

COMMISSIONER OF TREATIES OF COMMERCE. 

May 7, 1784, Mr. Jefferson was appointed minister pleni- 
potentiary with Mr. Adams and Doctor Franklin, to negotiate 
treaties of commerce with the nations of Europe. Taking his 
oldest daughter with him, he proceeded to Boston, through New 
Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island, and also 
visited New Hampshire and Vermont, to learn as well as he 
could the commercial condition of the country. On the fifth of 
July he sailed from Boston, and reached Paris the sixth of 
August, having stopped a few days in England. 

He immediately joined the other ministers ; and they pre- 
pared their plan for treaties. Frederick of Prussia, through his 
ambassador, was quick to enter into a treaty. Denmark and 
Tuscany also came forward and made treaties; but the other 
nations of Europe knew but little of America, and cared less. 



144 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

Americans were rebels, and they wanted nothing to do with 
them. So not mucli came of this appointment, though it began 
the work of commercial treaties. 



MINISTER AT THE COURT OF FRANCE. 

On the tenth of March, 1785, Congress appointed Mr. Jefferson 
minister at the court of France, in the place of Doctor Franklin. 
Doctor Franklin had won the favor of the French as a great 
statesman, philosopher and man. He was well stricken in 
years, yet well preserved and ripe in every manly grace. "You 
replace M. Franklin, I hear," said Count De Vergennes to him. 
" I succeed, no one can replace him," was the ready reply. This 
was a good beginning with the count, who was a great admirer 
of Franklin. Jefferson had a profound respect for Franklin, 
and Franklin a tender regard for Jefferson. Differing much in 
age, they were yet most intimate friends. They agreed in their 
general principles and philosophy. In nature they were quite 
similar. They were equal advocates of human rights, and had like 
views of the new government in America. Jefferson's early man- 
hood, yet ripe mind, agreeable manners and ready adaptation to 
circumstances, soon won for him the confidence of the government 
circles and the intelligent and influential of Paris. America was 
then all the rage in France. She had cast off and driven back 
England, the old foe of France. ^ She had achieved liberty. She 
had set up a government of the people. There were many in 
France to rejoice in this. The representative of such a people 
had the enthusiasm of Frenchmen to begin with. But he was, 
as De Chastelux called him, "the young senatoi'," the musician, 
the geometrician, the astronomer, the philosopher, the states- 
man, the polite and solid scholar, and the elegant gentlemen in 
society. These accomplishments made him the rage as well as 
his country. 

France, by war, tyranny and taxation, had impoverished and 
degraded its people. Long abuse of power and privilege had 
corrupted its ruling classes. The better thinkers had come to 
see the evils upon them, and to dream of possible release from 



MOMAS JEFFERSON. i4§ 

them. The example of America made many believe freedom 
was possible to France. All such gathered around Jefferson, 
received inspiration from him, and poured out their hopes to 
him. It soon became the fashion to talk liberalism ; and fashion 
rules in Paris. All classes soon took up the talk, and an era of 
enthusiasm for liberty in France came rushing on. Jefferson's 
presence and conversation, no doubt, stimulated the democratic 
sentiment. 

The beginnings of the revolution came while Jefferson was 
in France : the assembly of the notables ; the meetings of the 
commons ; the consultations about the forms of the new govern- 
ment ; the rising of the people against the king's soldiers ; the 
submission of the king to the popular will, and the great oppor- 
tunity for a peaceful change from a monarchical to a republican 
government. He was much consulted by the patriots of a new 
France. 

His business as minister was thoroughly attended to ; and all 
done for the commerce of America that could be done. 

On the twenty-sixth of September, 1788, on leave of Congress, 
he left Paris to bring home his daughters, and look after his 
affairs. Another man was temporarily appointed in his place ; 
but as events moved on, he was so employed in the home inter- 
ests of his country that he never returned to France. On leaving 
France, he made this record of his impressions of that country: 
"I cannot leave this great and good country without expressing 
my sense of the pre-eminence of its character among the nations 
of the earth. A more benevolent people I have never known; 
nor greater warmth and devotedness in their select friendships. 
Their kindness and accommodation to strangers is unparalleled, 
and the hospitality of Paris is beyond anything I had conceived 
to be practicable in a large city." 

His welcome at Monticello by his slaves, who unhitched his 
horses from his carriage and drew it to his house ; and then 
received him from it into their arms, and 'Hoted" him into the 
house, covering his hands with kisses, and pressing his person 
with embraces, is told by his eldest daughter. 
10 



lU OtJll PRESIDENTS. 



SECRETARY OF STATE. 

Mr. Jefferson had come home to, look after his business and 
home interests ; but, before he reached Monticello, he received 
a letter from General, now President, Washington, appointing 
him secretary of state. He would gladly have been excused 
from this duty. The government was starting anew. He had 
been aivay three years, and knew his foreign duties. He dis- 
trusted his ability to put the domestic affairs of the new govern- 
ment in order. He craved the domestic quiet of Monticello 
with his children, relatives and neighbors. Yet he was loyal, 
and said to Washington : " You are to marshal us as may be 
best for the public good." 

On the twenty-third of February, 1790, his daughter Martha 
was married to Mr. Thomas Mann Eandolph, Jr., of Tuckahoe, 
a second cousin and a young man of excellent connection, edu- 
cation and promise. 

On the first of March Mr. Jefferson left home for New York, 
but tarried a little at Eichmond and Alexandria. He went in 
his own carriage, making three miles an hour in the day time 
and one mile an hour at night. At Philadelphia he visited Dr. 
Franklin, now aged and in his last illness. He was deeply 
impressed with the visit. 

He reached New York on the twenty-first. Congress was in 
session, and much business awaited him. 

He was singularly and sadly affected by New YorK society. 
He had come from Paris, where America and republicanism 
were enthusiastically extolled. He believed in the right of the 
people to govern themselves; that kingcraft was a delusion and 
a sin; that monarchy was a rock of offense to humanity; and 
yet in New York society it was common to hear England and 
its government lauded above all others. He says: "I cannot 
describe the wonder and mortification with which the table 
talks filled me. Politics were the chief topic, and a pref- 
erence of kingly over republican government was evidently 
the favorite sentiment !" New York city was in British hands 
during the revolution. Many of its old families were tories at 



THOMAS JEFFERSOK. 147 

heart after independence was secured. As a colony and state, 
New York was slow to accept republican teachings. Jefferson 
had never lived in such an atmosphere. It was stifling and 
offensive to him. It, no doubt, intensified his republicanism. 

Very soon after peace was declared, there came to be a 
divided political sentiment in the country. The old love of the 
English style of government was very strong in many minds. 
All admitted that it was the best model yet known ; so the 
question was : How closely shall America follow the model ? 
Alexander Hamilton would follow it very closely. He was, no 
doubt, the strongest and clearest political thinker of his time. 
The world hardly had a superior. He was an ardent friend of 
Washington and America; had put all his hopes into the revo- 
lution; and after the constitution was adopted, wrote in the 
''Federalist" some of the ablest articles in its defense ever 
written. He probably paved the way to its acceptance more 
than any other. Mr. Jefferson, who at first was opposed to the 
constitution in many particulars, though he said the convention 
that made it was a ''convention of demi-gods," acknowledged his 
indebtedness to Mr. Hamilton for so enforcing its provisions 
that he saw it in a new light and came to be its friend. 

Governor Morris, of New York, was even more in favor of a 
monarchical form of government. Some, no doubt, would have 
been glad of the English government with the king left out. 
There grew up a party of this class of political thinkers, who 
accepted the constitution, but some of whom thought, jDcrhaps, 
it would be modified more in favor of monarchy. The difficul- 
ties and occasional discontent and outbreak among the people ; 
the lawlessness engendered by the long war, doubtless frightened 
some of republican ways of thinking, and turned them back 
toward monarchical views. Hamilton himself grew more 
monarchical with his experience of the many defects in the 
first attempts of government by the people. 

On the other side were strong believers in the capacity of 
the people for self-government. This class had more confidence 
in human nature, more trust in fair treatment and just laws, a 
greater readiness to think well of mankind generally. And this 



148 OtJR PRESIDENTS. 

class, too, were more out with the old forms of government gen- 
erally. They were political reformers willing to take the risk 
of something new. They hated King George, and all kings. 
They hated Parliament as a tool of the king ; hated the lords 
and peers, and all the titled nobility ; even hated England for 
sustaining such a tyrannical crew. Jefferson, a man of the 
people for many years, grew more and more in sympathy with 
these radically republican views. His experience in France 
helped them on. When he returned he was shocked by the 
monarchical and English opinions of many Americans. He was 
repelled by them, and soon began to resist them, and with so 
much energy and honest fervor that he, in due time, without 
intending it, became the leader of that party. 

Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Hamilton, personal friends, co-work- 
ers in the revolution, now became members of Washington's 
cabinet, the first cabinet of the kind ever formed. The other 
two heads of the cabinet were General Knox and Edmund Ran- 
dolph. Knox sympathized with the federal views, Eandolph 
with the republican. Washington was elected by the whole 
people ; he sought to make his administration serve the whole. 
It was as he intended it should be, a no-party administration. 
But this mixing opposites in the same body did not work as 
Washington hoised. These leaders of contrary views, Hamilton 
and Jefferson, were too much opposed to coalesce. And instead 
of nearing each other they constantly separated. They were 
able men and each filled his office with great ability ; and each 
had a great following. The sharp division between them grad- 
ually came to be a sharp division between two great political 
parties. Perhaps it was inevitable. Republican government 
was a new thing in the world. It was a new thing for the 
peoj)le to administer their own government. Leaders -of 
popular parties had as much to learn as the people. Neither of 
these men were as perfect, or as wise or great as their followers 
thought them. The principles of neither were so bad as the 
opposite party thought. Successful governments could have 
been run by either. 

Mr. Jefferson opposed Mr. Hamilton's paper-money schemes. 



THOMAS JEFFEKSON. 149 

At first they seemed to work well; money was plenty; the pub- 
lic debts cared for; the national credit established; the spirit 
of trade and speculation aAvakened ; the stock in the United 
States Bank went up to almost one hundred per cent above par. 
Then Hamilton was regarded as a broad-seeing and wonderful 
man. Jefferson regarded all this with distrust ; pronounced it 
false in princi23le — demoralizing; claimed that it was corrupt- 
ing the government^ had already done it, and was leading to 
moral and financial ruin. A few years brought the very results 
Jefferson had predicted. The stock in the bank went down 
nearly one hundred and twenty-five per cent. Financial disas- 
ter was general. This gave great currency to Jefferson's wis- 
dom and political philosophy. 

A war between France and England came on, in which 
Spain was embroiled. Popular enthusiasm went with France. 
The French Minister, Genet, through popularity with the peo- 
ple, sought to carry the United States with France. For a time 
with a high hand he pushed his plans, and at length became 
embroiled with our government, which asked France to recall 
him. Jefferson's strong French sympathies drew him to Genet; 
but in the end he disproved his course, and set himself right in 
the very general estimate of his countrymen, Hamilton, on 
the other hand, sympathized with England, and all the more 
in consequence of his opposition to Jefferson and his followers. 
It was a critical time for the United States government, on 
account of its real dangers, but more on account of its divided 
counsels. 

Hamilton's English leaning and opposition to France, to 
Jefferson and to the public sympathies, made strong inroads 
upon his popularity, and also upon his party, the federalist. 
By Washington's steady-going Avisdom, neutrality was observed 
and war escaped. But very intense political feelings, even ani- 
mosities, were engendered, which projected themselves through 
nearly three generations, and are scarcely ended yet. The old 
men of this age remember much of them and feel something of 
them yet. Jefferson's generous sympathies, hatred of kings and 
tyrannies, generally sound philosophy of human life, with his 



150 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

strong felicitous way of stating his views, put him into his age 
as a mighty personal power. Yet it seems clear to the riper 
thought of this age that he leaned to an extreme democracy; 
while Hamilton and his confreres leaned as much to an over- 
strong monarchical government; and they each, probably, leaned 
the more by their mutual repulsion. Left to themselves, they 
would both have grown up erect and giant oaks in the new 
republican forest. Such are the misfortunes of partisanship. 

The essential principles of both the parties of that time have 
gone into the constitution and administration of the American 
government. The federalists gave the anatomy and solid struc- 
ture, and the republicans, afterward called democrats, the blood 
and muscle and broad human sensibility. The two together 
have made it what it is, the joy and glory of the whole world. 

RESIGNS THE SECRETARYSHIP. 

On the fifth of January, 1794, Mr. Jeiferson resigned his 
place in the cabinet. A year later Mr. Hamilton resigned. 
Jefferson retired to Monticello and busied himself with his 
domestic affairs with zeal and satisfaction. His daughter, Mrs. 
Eandolph, had two children in whom he found great pleasure. 
He and his daughter became almost inseparable, so much so, 
that she took her family home to Monticello, that she and her 
children might be constantly with him. Three years were spent 
in this way, most grateful to this man of rural and domestic 
tastes. 

VICE-PRESIDENT. 

February 8, 1797, Mr. Jefferson was elected vice-president of 
the United States, under John Adams as president. Here were 
president and vice-president politically at variance, yet both 
high-minded, patriotic men. The government was new. Under 
Washington it had run largely by tlie influence of his great 
name. Now it had gone into other hands, and had opposite 
political sentiments in its president and vice-president. It had 
had serious troubles under Washington from opposing members 
of the cabinet. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 151 

Now, a war was threatened from France. President Adams 
and his government prepared for it. An army was raised; 
Washington appointed commander, with Hamilton the second 
in command. Stringent laws against foreigners were jjassed. 
Sedition laws were enacted and somewhat enforced, obnoxious 
to the spirit of the government. Great excitement was occa- 
sioned among the people. They were unused to their own insti- 
tutions, and were experimenting in relation to them. There 
was much distrust and excitability. 

There is now but little doubt but that at about this time, one 
Don Francisco de Miranda, of Caracas, who had been a literary 
traveler, and had figured as a military man in France, had con- 
ceived the idea of the independence of the Spanish-American 
states ; had planned with Pitt for the cooperation of the British 
government in his scheme, and was now scheming with Hamil- 
ton to involve the United States in the project ; and that this 
anticipated war with France, and these war measures in which 
Adams and Washington were innocently involved, were a part 
of the ambitious scheme. A few of Hamilton's special friends 
were his coadjutors, and probably some of Mr. Adams' cabinet. 
Those involved were all federalists. The discovery of something 
of their plot brought condemnation and retribution to that 
party. The most of the jjarty were among the best men of the 
nation. And those involved in this scheme may have regarded 
it as a legitimate way of carrying the independence enjoyed by 
the United States to the central and southern states of America. 
It was an age when military schemes abounded. Bonaparte had 
begun his career. The American continent was regarded as a 
great field for the future. The principles of civil liberty were 
not well established. In the disturbed and demoralized con- 
dition of the times, this scheme took shape in Miranda's ambi- 
tious brain, and came near wrecking in foreign and intestine 
broils this new government by the people. 

Those who speak of the early times of the republic, as its 
good old times, speak without knowledge. The truth is, its 
early days were its worst days. They were days of experiment- 
ing and blundering; of hard criticism and relentless partisan- 



152 OUE PRESIDEKTS. 

ship; of distrust, accusation and recrimination. For twenty- 
years the government hobbled along. And why should it not? 
Its people were learning the great art of self-government. It 
may truly be attributed to the good Providence over them 
more than to their own wisdom and virtue, that they learned to 
walk at all. Everybody now ought to know the facts of those 
days and the whole history of this incomparable country, so as 
to properly appreciate the inestimable worth of this century- 
grown fabric of human wisdom and experience, under Divine 
guidance, which we call ''our government." 

Mr. Jefferson had no part or lot in these schemes and 
no knowledge of them at the time. No man of his party 
was approached by the foreign schemers. Only such were 
approached as were supposed to have English sympathies and 
French hatred. There were to be four nations involved in the 
scheme; to make several more new nations out of Spanish terri- 
tory, and add to the United States the Spanish territories of 
Florida and on the Mississippi river. The federal party were 
not in the least to blame for the scheming of a half a dozen of 
its members, but the punishment came upon the whole party. 

THE THIRD PRESIDENT. 

On the fourth day of March, 1801, Thomas Jefferson was 
inaugurated president of the United States, and Aaron Burr 
vice-president. His election had been stoutly opposed, but at 
last was cheerfully acquiesced m by the moderate federalists. 
There had come to be a very general fear that the republic was 
endangered by the fierce broils that were disturbing it; that the 
hot partisan spirit kept up might prove the ruin of the country 
and this experiment in popular government. This led the 
moderate federalists not only to acquiesce in the election of 
Mr. Jefferson, but to really feel like helping him to give the 
country a good administration. By the very fury of the canvass, 
peace came to the country. 

Mr. Jefferson selected a cabinet of strong men who were in 
sympathy with himself. Washington's cabinet was oil and 
water that would not mix. Adams' cabinet was weak, subject 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 153 

to strong men outside who had personal schemes to carry out. 
Now there was a strong and united cabinet, interested only in 
giving the people an administration which should promote the 
welfare of the whole country. 

At that early day there came up the question of civil service. 
Mr. Jefferson found all the offices in the gift of the government 
in the hands of the federalists, with a single exception. Mr. 
Adams had continued to make appointments up to the last day 
of his time, and always of federalists. Now came the question 
to Mr. Jefferson, shall these all remain, or shall a portion of 
them be dismissed to give place to friends of the new adminis- 
tration ? He decided that all faithful and efficient servants of 
the public should remain, but in a few cases of inefficiency and 
unworthiness in office he would make changes, and so continue 
to change for good cause till the ratio of republicans in office 
should be about equal to the ratio of republicans in the country, 
and so at length have both parties fairly represented officially, 
according to their strengtli. 

Mr. Jefferson's theory was that the great body of federalists 
as well as republicans were loyal to the republic and the prin- 
ciples on which it was founded, and that the fearful disturb- 
ances which came so near wrecking the new nation, were 
occasioned by scheming leaders and the arts and cabals of other 
nations. Washington's counsel to keep clear of foreign 
entanglement, was doubtless made because it Avas needed. Jef- 
ferson now hoped to have this counsel regarded. 

In his public appointments he had three rules: first, to treat 
as nullities the appointments of the former administration, 
made after his own election ; second, to ask, "Is he honest ? Is 
he capable ? Is he faithful to the constitution ? " and third, to 
refrain from appointing relatives. He said: "The public will 
never be made to believe that an appointment of a relative is 
made on the ground of merit alone, uninfluenced by family ties. 
It is true, this places the relations of the president in a worse 
situation than if he were a stranger, but the public good, which 
cannot be effected if its confidence be lost, requires this sacri- 
jSce." Washington had adopted the same rule. Mr. Adams 



154 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

made the mistake of appointing a relative in one instance, but 
the Senate rightly refused to confirm it. 

The population of the United States in 1800, on the eve of 
Mr. Jefferson's election, was 5,305,925. It had about doubled 
since the declaration of independence. 

THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 

The Spanish possessions on the South and Central American 
coast, then reached as far north as South Carolina, so that 
the United States joined territory on the south, with Spain. In 
the settlement of the war between France and Spain, France 
became the possessor of Florida and Louisiana. This aroused 
the United States to the possible danger of future and not far 
off complications with France. Mr. Jefferson counseled France 
against the possession of this Spanish territory, as threatening 
the peace of the United States. But France was dreaming of 
colonial schemes. Bonaparte conceived of a French empire 
in America with its capital and great commercial outlet at New 
Orleans. But so stoat was the resistance of the United States, 
and so threatening its attitude, that he began to think it might 
cost more than it would be worth. Mr. Jefferson had charged 
Mr. Livingston, our minister in France, to use every endeavor to 
purchase the territory of France. Then to press the matter 
still further, he sent Mr. Monroe to France on this special 
mission. The result was that on the thirtieth of April, 1803, 
the purchase was made. Sixty million francs was the price ; 
twenty millions to be paid to citizens of the United States due 
from France for supplies and prizes at sea. 

The territory was an empire of itself. It was in the heart of 
the American continent. It held the great rivers. After the 
declaration of independence, this was the greatest event that 
had transpired in America. It opened the valley of the Missis- 
sippi to the freedom and civilization of the United States. And 
it only cost a little money, easily paid in the growth of the 
country. And yet it was by some denounced at the time as a 
reckless waste of a nation's money. But it made the adraiftistra- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 155 

tiou immensely popular, as it removed one great source of 
danger and was a peaceful settlement of a difficult problem. 

Mr. Jefferson was inaugurated for his second term, March 
4, 1805, in the sixty-second year of his age. The rapidly 
growing country, the developing principles of republicanism, 
the enlarging sphere of the nation's intercourse with the world, 
made his administration important in many respects. The 
development of Aaron Burr's plot foi a western empire and his 
treasonable pvirposes, and his trial, came in Mr. Jefferson's time. 
So did the duel between Burr and Hamilton, and the death of 
the latter. 

Mr. Jefferson grew in popularity and influence during his 
whole administration. He served as president in stormy times; 
but carried the ship of state into peaceful waters. Even a hasty 
study of his, and the earlier administrations, shows how much 
the people had to learn to be self-governing. They felt their 
way blindly — even those who governed for the most part. The 
people were sensitive, critical, suspicious, excitable. Little evils 
portended destruction; trifles were likely to upset the govern- 
ment; a new idea startled many; the faces of many were always 
turned backward for examples, and if any took a forward look 
it frightened them. Mr. Jefferson looked forward, and hoped 
for better things in the future than the past had known. 
He was constitutionally a reformer. He tried experiments 
and took new ways of doing things. He was no worshiper of 
the past. When he looked back he saw so many horrible things 
in the oppressions and sufferings of humanity that he shuddered. 
He was humane, and believed in humanity; in the equal rights 
of men; in fair dealing, and the helpfulness of governments 
and the higher classes of men. He honored human nature, and 
believed the natural order of things was good. He wanted to 
abolish slavery, and caste, and titles, and official dignities, and 
recognize plain worth and true merit only as conferring the dig- 
nity worth knowing. If he had been born among the Friends 
he would have been a zealous disciple of their principles. As 
he said in a letter to Mrs. Adams in explanation of the differ- 
ences between him and the federalists: " One fears most the 



156 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

ignorance of the people; the other the selfishness of rulers, inde- 
pendent of them. Which is right, time and experience will 
prove." The federalists feared the ignorance of the people, he 
would say, while he feared more the selfishness of rulers. 

Added to these constitutional qualities and opinions a strong 
imagination, a fervent temperament, high spirit, intensity of 
nature, an ability to talk and write with power, and a disposi- 
tion to call things by the names most befitting his views of 
them, and we have Thomas Jeiferson — not a model man, by any 
means; over fervent often; over severe sometimes; suspicious of 
the motives of those who sharply differed from him; over- 
generous to those he liked, and yet a good man; great, honest, 
hearty, brilliant, powerful; who could not help making a strong 
impression on his age, and having a wide following — a king 
among men, as royal in heart as in mind. 

Jefferson's religious opinions. 

It was common in those high calvinistic times for his bitter 
political enemies to denounce him as an infidel, an atheist, a 
despiser of religion. And it must be said tliat the language of 
denunciation among those of different opinions was common 
then. It was common to be unjust and unfair to those of the 
contrary opinion. The most religious people were not wanting 
in hard terms to apply roundly to those whom they censured. 

Mr. Jefferson was baptized and reared in the Episcopal 
church, and through his life contributed to its support. His 
wife and daughters were attached to it. Its ministers were often 
his friends. Had he lived in this time he would perhaps have 
been a broad churchman, or a Unitarian, or a friend, or a new 
orthodox, or a left-wing friend, of some church. At heart he 
was a religious man, but his religion was not the orthodoxy of 
his time. He always spoke and wrote reverently of God in all his 
state papers, as in the Declaration of Independence, recognized 
the just and good providence of God over men. In letters to 
friends he has occasionally spoken believingly of a future im- 
mortal life. To Mrs. Adams, he Avrote: ''Perhaps, one of the 
elements of future felicity is to be a constant and unimpassioned 



THOMAS JEFFEESO]!?. 157 

view of what is passing here. If so, this may well supply the 
wish of occasional visits." And to Mr. Adams, after the death 
of his wife, he speaks of ascending "in essence to a meeting with 
the friends we have loved and lost, and whom we shall still love 
and never lose again." 

In a report concerning the religious instruction in the 
university of Virginia, he said : " The relations which exist 
between man and his Maker, and the duties resulting from those 
relations, are the most interesting and important to every human 
being, and the most incumbent on his study and investigation." 

THE UNIVEESITY OF VIRGINIA. 

As early as 1816, Mr. Jefferson was instrumental in converting 
Albemarle academy into Central college. The scheme of a col- 
lege grew in his mind into the University of Virginia. He gave 
much interest to this for many years. It was the initiatory 
movement for state universities. It did not realize his hopes, 
but became an efficient institution. 

FINANCIAL MISFORTUNES. 

During the last years of his life, a crushing financial depres- 
sion made the values of property uncertain and caused many 
failures. Mr. Jefferson's constant attention to public business 
had prevented his attention to his own affairs, and they suffered 
by this neglect. He got somewhat involved in debt, and just 
at this time Governor Nicolas failed for whom he had given his 
name as surety to the amount of twenty thousand dollars. It 
was a great trial for his declining years, but he bore it with 
cheerful fortitude. But when it became known to the country 
that his affairs were thus involved, personal gifts of gratitude 
and love from all parts came in to relieve his estate and give him 
great peace. He accepted them as tokens of affection from his 
children. 

FINAL DEPARTURE. 

The robust frame of the great patriot at last began to give 
way to age. It is pleasant to read the correspondence between 



158 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

him and John Adams, in their declining years. In their early 
manhood tliey were comjiatriots and personal friends and served 
their country in mutual affection. But in the sharp division 
of parties they became estranged, and lived as strangers for 
many years. When the heat of political misunderstandings 
passed away, they became reconciled, and ever after they were 
like two loving brothers in their correspondence. As they grew 
old they told of and inquired after their infirmities. They kept 
each other informed of their conditions. When Adams came 
to die, his last words were: *•' Thomas Jefferson still survives." 
Hie last thought seemed to have been on his old friend. 

It was on the fourth of July, 1826, fifty years after they had 
enacted the declaration of independence, when the whole nation 
was jubilant in their praises of what they had done, at fifty 
minutes after twelve o'clock noon, that Thomas Jefferson died. 
A little before he had taken affectionate farewells of members of 
his family, and when the last was said, he audibly murmured, 
"Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace." An 
hour later and John Adams followed. Earth sees them no 
more, save in their great works. Their love is complete in the 
light in which they dwell. 



^HE ^RAVE OF ^HOMAS IeFFERSON. 

The grave of Jefferson is at Monticello, the jalace of his 
residence, which he chose for its beautiful situation, and wide 
and grand views over a great sweeja of valley and hills and richly 
wooded mountains in the distance, forty miles away. He made 
the selection while yet a young man. There he took his young 
wife in the midst of a great snow-storm and in the dead of 
night. There he lived his great life. It was the dearest spot 
on earth to him, and the most beautiful. There he died ; and 
there reposes his dust. What associations cluster around this 
now lonely and neglected place ! What characters once came 
here for counsel and high converse! What throngs from all the 
states and over the sea! AYhat letters were here written and 



THOMAS JEFFERSOK". 159 

read; what words and works that live! How much for the 
young republic was here thought and done. Now how sadly 
lonely ! 

On the fly-leaf of an old book of accounts for 1741, was 
found, after Jefferson's death, the following in his hand, which 
was supposed to refer to the place where he would have his body 
sleep in peace. "Choose some unfrequented vale in the park, 
where is no sound to break the stillness, but a brook that bub- 
bling winds among the woods — no mark of human shape that 
has been there, unless the skeleton of some poor wretch who 
sought that place out of despair to die in. Let it be among 
ancient and venerable oaks; intersperse some gloomy evergreens. 
Appropriate one half to the use of my family; the other to 
strangers, servants, etc. Let the exit look upon a small and 
distant j)art of the blue mountains." 

A little way from his old residence, which crowns Monticello, 
and a little to the right of the Charlotteville road, in a thick 
growth of woods, still and lonely as he could wish, is Jefferson's 
grave. There is no vale, no brook to murmur, no sound but the 
soughing of the wind in the evergreens. There are some thirty 
graves in a space about one hundred feet square, which was 
enclosed by a brick wall, ten feet high. On the south side, this 
wall had fallen into a ruin. On the north and west sides it yet 
stood. The iron gates on these two sides were locked in rust. 
Virginia creepers adorned the west wall. The ground of the 
enclosure was neglected, grown up to grass, shrubs and weeds. 
Loose bricks and stones, and vegetable decay and growth marked 
the place as a solitude, if not a ruin. The tombstones were gen- 
erally defaced and broken, — many of them fallen and overgrown 
with weeds and moss. About the middle of the northern side, 
is the grave of Jefferson, precisely where he had often told 
Wormley, his old servant, he desired to have it. The mound is 
trodden even with the ground. At the head of the grave was 
placed a coarse granite obelisk, nine feet high, which rested on a 
base three feet square. The monument was beaten and battered 
into a ruin by relic-hunters; even the inscription was beaten off, 
except the part that tells his birth and death. 



160 



OUR PRESIDEKfS. 



After Jefferson's death, a rough sketch of an obelisk was 
found, after which this was patterned. Under the design was 
this inscription : 



HERE WAS BURIED 

^UortXcics 'gcffcxsoUf 

AUTHOR OF THE 

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, 

OF THE 

STATUTE OF VIRGINIA FOR RELIGIOUS 
FREEDOM ; 

AND 

FATHER OF THE UNIVERSITY 

OF VIRGINIA; 

BORN APRIti 2, O. S. 1743 ; 

DIED JULY 4, 1836. 



Even this inscription, which was put upon the obelisk, is 
beaten off by the sacrilegious horde who have thronged the 
sacred place in idle curiosity, except the words that give the 
birth and death. 

This was the condition of Jefferson's grave until very 
recently. In 1878 a movement was made in Congress to remove 
this battered and disfigured monument and to put in its place 
one which should properly recognize the great sleeper under- 
neath. That movement failed because of objections by the 
owner of the place, who claimed ownership of the grave and the 
right of way to it. Arrangements were finally made, and last 
year a resolution was passed by Congress appropriating ten 
thousand dollars for erecting a suitable monument. During 
the pending of this resolution. Miss Sarah N. Randolph, a 
descendant of Jefferson, made to a member of Congress a full 
statement of the condition of the graveyard and the title to it 
by the family. The following is a part of this statement : 

''The little graveyard at Monticello — only one hundred feet 
square — is all of the ten thousand acres of land owned by Jef- 
ferson when he entered public life, which is now left in the 



THOMAS .lEFFERSOy. l6l 

pessession of his descendants. He sleeps amid scenes of sur- 
passing beauty and grandeur, on that lovely mountain side, 
surrounded by the graves of his children and grandchildren to 
the fifth generation. At his side lies his wife whom he loved 
with singular devotion. A few feet from him rests the cher- 
ished friend of his youth — young Dabney Carr — whose motion 
in the Virginia House of Burgesses, to establish committees of 
correspondence between the sister colonies, leading as it did to 
the meeting of the First Congress, has given his name an enviable 
place in American history. A little farther olf lie the remains 
of another devoted and distinguished friend, Governor Wilson 
Gary Nicolas, of Virginia ; while at his feet sleeps another gov- 
ernor of the old commonwealth, his own son-in-law, Thomas 
Mann Kandolph. The modesty of the spot is in striking con- 
trast with the celebrity of its dead ; and there are, perhaps, few 
in America of greater historic interest, or more deserving of the 
nation's care. Soon after the appropriation was made by Con- 
gress, Mr. W. W. Corcoran, the distinguished philanthropist, 
with characteristic munificence, endowed a professorship of nat- 
ural history in the University of Virginia, on condition that the 
institution should take care of the graveyard at Monticello, thus 
very appropriately placing the care of Jefferson's tomb in the 
hands of this child of his old age and the last creation of his 
genius." 

Congressman Manning said: "In God's universe there per- 
haps never lived a man who could point to grander and more 
glorious 'testimonials that he had lived.' He was, indeed, 
tenacious of living among men "as one that serveth,' and 
' Heaven, that -lent him genius, was repaid. ' He was sure of his 
reward through all succeeding generations." 

The monument was erected last year, and inscribed, as was 
the old one, according to his direction. The three things for 
which Jefferson cared most to be known, were those he named 
for his monument. It is hoped they will stand perpetual mon- 
uments of his genius and humanity. 

At last a fitting monument marks his resting place, erected 
as it should be, by the nation he did so much to create. A 
11 



1G2 OUK PRESIDENTS. 

fitting enclosure is also made of the sacred place, and a suitable 
provision for its care. 

The old Jefferson mansion, on the summit of Monticello, 
once so brilliant and hospitable, is now in desolate and ruinous 
decay. Thriving trees embower it. Living vegetables and ani- 
mals are making inroads upon it. Ruin is seeking it for its own. 
Unless arrested, the decay will before long become complete. It 
is a brick structure which the tooth of time is gnaAving at 
effectually. 

There is much that is saddening at Monticello, the contrast 
between the past and the present is so great. It was once so 
much to the country and the world ; now it is so little save in 
memory. 

If Monticello, like Mount Vernon, were in the hands of 
some patriotic national association, or were owned by the 
national government, it could be so cared for as to invite vis- 
itors from every part of the world, and would still speak to the 
world of the great principles for which Jefferson lived. Jeffer- 
son dead would be as real and powerful as Jefferson living. It 
is more than likely that something of this kind will be realized 
by and by, and Monticello will rise from the dead. 




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CNGHAVED EXPREESSLY FOR WEAVERS " LIV ES "ID GRAVES OFOUP PRESIDENTS. 



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CHAPTER V. 



JAMES MADISOK 



^fkA 



Fourth PREsroENT of the United States. 




1^0 rich was the character and so valuable is the example of 
James Madison that the opening sentence of this sketch 
of his career must express the regret that so little can 
be given of him for want of space. The fineness and 
finish of his character, the harmony, intelligence and 
elevated moral tone of the man were such as put him 
among the choice spirits who have so lived as to bless their kind 
in simply living. Simply to be such a man as he is to leave a 
benediction behind as a legacy for after years. 

He was the fourth president; he had been much associated 
with the three who had gone before him; had affiliated more 
or less with them all; was the personal friend of all, yet was a 
new character in the exalted position of chief magistrate of a 
great nation, and brought a new personality and spirit to adorn 
and honor the dignified place. No human position can give 
honor to such a man. He is himself honorable above all offices 
or places. He honors the highest place more than it honors him. 



ANCESTRY, YOUTH AND EDUCATION. 

Like the other great Virginians of his time, James Madison 
was of good English stock. He was a descendant of John Mad- 
ison, an Englishman, who settled in Virginia in 1635, twenty- 
six years after the settlement of Jamestown, and fifteen years 

163 



164 OUR PRESIDEKTS. 

after the landing on Plymouth Rock. His father was James 
Madison, of Orange, a planter of a large estate and ample for- 
tune. His mother's maiden name was Eleanor Conway. 

James Madison, the president, was born March 16, 1751, at 
King George, Virginia. He was the eldest of seven children. 
His boyhood was spent on his father's estate, in the midst of the 
cares, duties, joys and business of such a family so environed. 
He was born into good educational surroundings for such a boy. 
Being sensitive, impressible, quick of mind, tender of heart, 
conscientious, he was quick to take the lessons of such a home 
and its affairs. It was a school to him from the beginning. 

His father's home was at Montpelier, in Orange county, 
which became his in due time, and his permanent home. The 
school education of the boy was such as he could get in the rude 
schools of his time, till he began to be specially prepared for 
college at a school in Kings and Queens county, taught by a 
Scotchman by the name of Robertson. A portion of the time 
he had a private tutor in his home. 

In 1769, his eighteenth year, he entered Princeton college, New 
Jersey, presided over by Doctor Witherspoon, for whom young 
Madison conceived a strong interest, and by whom he was much 
quickened and benefited. He always retained many of the wise 
sayings and fine thoughts of his college president. It is one of 
those cases in which the student absorbs from the teacher much 
of his mental and moral life, to be improved upon and reflected 
through another life. He never tired of quoting Doctor Wither- 
spoon. He graduated in 1773, taking the degree of A.B. in his 
twenty-first year. He was but two years at college, indicating 
that he was so thoroughly fitted as to have entered an advanced 
class, or that the course of study was not so thorough as in all 
good colleges now. His biographers all speak, however, of the 
intensity of his devotion to his studies while in college, for he 
allowed himself only three hours sleep out of every twenty-four, 
at least for a portion of the time. This heavy work and little 
rest, even in two years, so impaired his health that for the most of 
his after life he suffered from the strain and over-taxation. It 
doubtless did much to subdue and restrain his native powers. 



JAMES MADISON. 165 

and give him a more placid and submissive temperament than 
he otherwise would have had. His force of character was abated, 
his will enfeebled by this over-taxation in college. More time, 
and more consistent use of it, might have given the country 
quite a different fourth president. 

After his graduation, he remained at Princton till the next 
spring to pursue a course of reading under the direction of 
Doctor Witherspoon. This gave him the best part of another 
year, in connection with the college and its president and their 
stimulating associations. Take it all in all, his college life gave 
a commanding direction to his career. It put his thoughts into 
the line of scholarship, philosophy and religion. It made him 
a thinker, a peer of the great minds who think the way for the 
world to pursue. 

In the spring of 1773 young Madison returned to his home in 
Virginia and began a course of legal reading to fit himself for the 
bar. During the time of his legal study, he did a large amount 
of general reading. He read Avorks on philosophy, on belles- 
letters, and general literature. He made a special study of the 
subject of religion, and satisfied himself upon the evidences of 
the christian religion. His nature Avould almost of necessity 
lead him into sympathy with Christianity, his soul was such easy 
soil for its doctrines to plant themselves in ; especially after his 
course at college had so quickened his mind to such studies and 
meditations. The study of christian evidences and doctrines, 
Avas a part of his education, and by that study he was not only 
established in the christian faith, but in that judicial way of 
thinking Avhich fitted him for the stirring times in which his 
manhood was spent and the noble and helpful part Avhich he 
took in them. Just such careful, passionless, clear-seeing 
thinkers, are the men Avho open the way for the on-moving 
march of great events, and Avho smooth that Avay also for the 
feet of the coming generations of men. EndoAved Avith a mind 
singularly free from passion and prejudice, naturally religious 
and liberty loving, sincere and hearty in every emotion and 
thought, he came to every subject to be honest and faithful with 
it and with himself. Quiet, meditative, refined and peaceful in 



166 OLK PRESIDENTS. 

nature, he was unconsciously fitting himself for a place and work 
which jjrovidence was preparing for him. 

Later in life, and after much of his fine and discriminating 
work was done for the help and admiration of men, Mr. Jeffer- 
son gave a classic pen-picture of him which may well be hung in 
this porch of his early manhood, that all who enter may be able 
to see beforehand something of the fineness and power of the 
man Avliose life they are about to become acquainted with. 

"Trained in these successive schools, he acquired a habit of 
self-possession which placed, at ready command, the rich 
resources of his luminous and discriminating mind and of his 
extensive information, and rendered him the first of every 
assembly afterward of which he became a member. Never 
wandering from his subject into vain declamation, but pursuing 
it closely in language pure, classic and copious ; soothing always 
the feelings of his adversaries by civilities, and softness of 
expression, he rose to the eminent station which he held in the 
great national convention of 1787; and in Virginia, which fol- 
lowed, he sustained the new constitution in all its parts, bearing 
off the palm against the logic of George Mason and the fervid 
declamation of Patrick Henry. With these consummate powers 
were united a pure and spotless virtue, which no calumny has 
ever attempted to sully. Of the power and polish of his pen, 
and of the wisdom of his administration in the highest office of 
the nation, I need say nothing. They have spoken and will 
forever speak for themselves." 

ENTRAXCE UPON" PUBLIC LIFE. 

Mr. Madison did not complete his legal studies, partly 
because his tastes led him to such a wide range of reading in 
other directions, and partly because an opportunity to serve an 
opj)ressed party awakened his sympathies. 

At that time the church of England held as absolute sway in 
Virginia as ever it did in England. It was the established 
church, sustained by a tax upon property which was collected by 
the officers of the law, the same as other taxes. Its ministers 
were legal officers and drew their support alike from church 



JAMES MADlaON. 1G7 

members and non-church members, alike from Episcopalians 
and believers in other creeds and churches. 

After a while, believers in other churches began to increase 
in Virginia, among them Baptists, who supported their own 
churches by voluntary contributions and then were forced to i)ay 
taxes for the support of the Episcopalian church, in which they 
did not believe. The Baptists claimed that they ought to' be 
relieved from this forced Episcopalian tax, that it was an intol- 
erant oppression unworthy of free America. In due time this 
Baptist claim raised a warm debate. It was sometimes fierce, 
and the Baptists had to learn by experience the full meaning of 
religious intolerance. Young Madison took the side of the 
Baptists in the debate, not from sympathy with them in 
religious opinions, but because he regarded religion as a matter 
of conscience in which every man should be free. His honest 
and zealous advocacy of a cause in which his family and class 
associates were against him, attracted much notice and put him 
conspicuously before the public as a young man who had volun- 
tarily adopted an unpopular cause in his first public act. Of 
course he won friends among the persecuted Baptists at once, 
and among all right thinking people at last. 

In the spring of 1776, in the twenty-sixth year of his age, he 
was elected to serve in the convention to form a constitution for 
the state of Virginia. This was the year of the declaration of 
independence, just when the principles of civil liberty, national 
life, and local and general law were being discussed. With his 
training in study and observation, he was fitted to get the great- 
est possible personal benefit from this practical application of all 
he had learned to the actual business of forming the funda- 
mental law of a state. It brought him into daily association 
with the best minds of Virginia and to a daily discussion of the 
principles of statecraft, a school of itself of magnificent 
instructive power. He was timid and retiring ; said but little, 
but studied and thought much. 

The next year, 1777, he was a candidate to the state 
assembly. He refused to treat the whisky-drinking voters, and 
some said he was not a public speaker, because he had kept so 



168 OUE PRESIDENTS. 

silent in the constitutional convention, and so he was not 
elected. But those who had served with him in the convention, 
and had witnessed the talents, energy, learning and fidelity of 
the modest young man, interested themselves in securing his 
ability in the public service, and obtained his appointment as a 
member of the executive council. In this capacity he served 
under Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson who, learning his 
great worth, became his powerful friends for the whole of their 
lives. 

MADE A MEMBER OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS. 

In the year 1780 Mr. Madison was elected to the Continental 
Congress, in the twenty-ninth year of his age. He was yet a young 
man and had given three years to the service of his native state 
in the organization and admistration of its government. Now 
he was in the great council of the forming nation, among its 
greatest men, and having a share in the conduct of its greatest 
affairs. The war had so far proceeded that it must be pushed 
through to final victory or defeat. America must be a country 
of freemen or slaves. With such young men as Mr. Madison, 
the question had but one side: America must be free. So their 
minds were occupied with plans for the government of the new 
nation. This was especially so with young Madison. He had a 
constructive mind. He saw that the old forms of government 
had gone to pieces, and new ones must be put in their places. 
To this constructive work he bent all his energies. Eeared in 
the most aristocratic society in America, such was the freedom 
and originality of his mind that he adopted the broadest and 
most humane ways of thinking. He went to every question as 
to a fresh study, with little reference to what had been the 
prevailing opinion uj^on it. He served three years in Congress, 
which included the close of the war and the treaty of peace. 

ELECTED TO THE VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE. 

In 1784 Mr. Madison was elected a member of the Virginia 
Legislature. Now that peace and freedom were secured, the work 



JAMES MADISON. 169 

of government construction was fairly begun. To this work ne 
carried all his power. Virginia was English to the core; it must 
be made American and republican to the core. He advocated such 
a thorough revision of the old statutes as would make them con- 
form to the new republican order of society. It was hard for 
the tories to submit to these radical changes; and every change 
had to be secured by a hard battle of words and votes. The war 
of swords and cannon had been changed to a war of arguments 
and ballots. The war was not over by any means. The tories, 
who had lost all in the field, now meant to gain what they could 
in the legislatures. Into this legislature came the final settle- 
ment of the question of religious freedom in Virginia, which 
brought Mr. Madison, as a young man, into public notice. He 
published a ''Memorial and Eemonstrance " against a general 
and legal assessment for the support of religion, which was so 
able and exhaustive that it essentially settled the matter, and 
religion became as free in Virginia as elsewhere. Church and 
state were separated, to coalesce naturally and freely in their 
inner principles and life, and become mutual supports to each 
other. 

He served in the legislature three years, during which time 
Kentucky was separated from Virginia and erected into a state 
by his aid. He opposed the introduction of paper money; 
favored the legal code proposed by Jefferson, Wythe and Pen- 
dleton; and supported the recovery of debts due to British 
creditors. 

In January, 1786, Mr. Madison offered a resolution inviting 
the several states to send delegates to a convention to meet at 
Annapolis, to consider a reorganization of the general govern- 
ment of the country. Such a convention was held, but only 
five states sent delegates. But though the number was too 
small to act authoritatively for all the states, the delegates 
present discussed the condition and needs of the country and 
resolved upon a movement for a convention the next year to 
form a constitution. The j)roposition was generally accepted 
by the states, 



170 OUK PRESIDENTS. 



A CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION 

was called for May, 1787. The convention met in Philadelphia. 
Mr, Madison was chosen as one of the delegates from Virginia. 
Washington was another, and was elected president of the con- 
vention. It met at the appointed time — one of the most able, 
earnest, conscientious and dignified bodies of men ever assem- 
bled. It was an assembly of giants — ^'of demigods," as^ Jefferson 
said. Nor were the men greater than the occasion. The old 
confederation of states had proved itself inadequate in many 
particulars. It was a body without a head. It was a govern- 
ment by congress, in session only a part of a time, a government 
without system or fundamental law. So poorly did it work 
that many were losing confidence in popular government. In 
many of the best minds there was a turning back to monarchy 
as the only hope of stability and peace. Those of tory proclivi- 
ties were beginning to say: -'I told you so; the people are too 
unstable to know what they want." The call for a stronger 
government was getting loud. The time had fully come when 
something must be done, or the fruits of the long war might be 
lost in anarchy and disunion, and the hope of free government 
postponed for a long time. The great men who met in that 
convention realized the importance of their work. They were 
the patriots, who, for country and humanity, had staked every- 
thing in resistance of British tyranny and who now were in 
danger of losing everything in popular incapacity and anarchy. 
And yet the difficulty was not in the people, but in their having 
no systematic way of conducting their government. 

Mr. Madison, probably more than any other man, realized 
the importance and greatness of the work of this convention. 
He had conceived and proposed it. It had struck the popular 
heart from the beginning. The people hoped for relief and 
safety from it. From the moment of its conception, the study 
of a plan of a constitution, became a profound meditation with 
Mr. Madison. For two years he studied and sketched and con- 
sulted other minds and wrought at his plan. 

Among General Washington's papers was found one, after 



JAMES MADISO]!f. 171 

his death, in his own writing, purporting to be the substance of 
a constitution, which Mr. Madison conceived to be about what 
was needed, and had written to him in a letter some time before 
the convention. Mr. Madison's letter has never been found. 
The portion of it which Washington transcribed is as follows : 
"Mr. Madison thinks an individual independence of the 
states utterly irreconcilable with their aggregate sovereignty, 
and that # consolidation of the whole into one simple republic 
would be as inexpedient as it is unattainable. He therefore 
proposes a middle ground, which may at once support a due 
supremacy of the national authority and not exclude the local 
authorities whenever they can be subordinately useful. 

"As the groundwork, he proposes that a change be made in 
the principle of representation, and thinks there would be no 
great difficulty in effecting it. 

" Next, that in addition to the present federal powers, the 
national government should be armed with positive and com- 
plete authority in all cases which require uniformity ; such as 
regulation of trade, including the right of taxing both exports 
and imports, the fixing the terms and forms of naturaliza- 
tion, etc. 

" Over and above this positive j)ower, a negative, in all cases 
whatever, on the legislative acts of the states, as heretofore 
exercised by the kingly prerogative, appears to him absolutely 
necessary, and to be the least possible encroachment on the 
state jurisdictions. Without this defensive power, he conceives 
that every positive law which can be given on paper will be 
evaded. 

" This control over the laws would prevent the internal 
vicissitudes of state policy and the aggressions of interested 
majorities. 

" The natural supremacy ought also to oe extended, he 
thinks, to the judiciary departments; the oaths of the judges 
should at least include a fidelity to the general as well as local 
constitution; and that an appeal should be to some national 
tribunal in all cases to which foreigners or inhabitants of other 



172 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

states may be parties. The admiralty jurisdictions to fall 
entirely within the purview of the national government. 

" The national supremacy in the executive departments is 
liable to some difficulty, unless the officers administering them 
could be made appointable by the supreme government. The 
militia ought entirely to be placed, in some form or other, under 
the authority which is entrusted with the general defense. 

"A government composed of such extensive powers should 
be well organized and balanced. 

" The legislative departments might be divided into two 

branches, one of them chosen every years, by the people 

at large, or by the legislatures; the other to consist of fewer 
members, and to hold their places for a longer term, and to go 
out in such rotation as always to leave in office a large majority 
of old members. 

" Perhaps the negative on the laws might be most con- 
veniently exercised by this branch. 

'^ As a further check, a council of revision, including the 
great ministerial officers, might be superadded. 

''A national executive must also be provided. He has 
scarcely ventured as yet to form his own opinion, either of the 
manner in which it ought to be constituted, or of the authori- 
ties with which it ought to be clothed. 

"An article, especially guaranteeing the tranquility of the 
states against internal as well as external dangers. 

" In like manner the right of coercion should be expressly 
declared. With the resources of commerce in hand, the 
national administration might always find means of exerting it 
either by sea or land ; but the difficulty and aAvkwardness of 
operating by force on the collective will of a state, render it par- 
ticularly desirable that the necessity of it might be precluded. 
Perhaps the negative on the laws might create such a mutual 
dependence between the general and particular authorities as to 
answer ; or perhaps some defined objects of taxation might be 
submitted along with commerce, to the general authority. 

"To give a new system its proper validity and energy, a 
ratification must be obtained from the people, and not merely 



JAMES MADISON". 173 

from the ordinary authority of the legislatures. This will be 
more essential, as inroads on the existing constitutions of the 
states will be unavoidable." 

Probably no other man in the country made such preparation 
for the convention as did Mr. Madison. He gave the many sub- 
jects to be considered careful and earnest study. He made, at 
least, this outline of what he thought should go into the consti- 
tution. Anyone who will compare this outline with the actual 
constitution will see how much of Mr. Madison's suggestion 
went in. Some of his suggestions were left out, that perhaps 
would better have gone in. It is clear that he wanted a strong 
government, a supreme government over the states in all that 
pertained to its functions. He did not intend to have secession, 
or disunion, possible by any of the states. 

The great question of the time was, how much of the gen- 
eral power of government shall be given to the states, and how 
much to the general government. The federalists wanted a 
strong central government ; the high federalists wanted it abso- 
lute. The republicans wanted to keep the power near the 
people, in the states as much as possible and not have a general 
government at all. Washington, Madison, Adams, and 
especially Hamilton and Morris, wanted strength in the general 
government. The two latter were high federalists of the 
strongest type. Madison was a moderate federalist, at this time. 
Later, he inclined more to trust the people, and became a mod- 
erate republican. Whatever partisan he was, he was moderate. 
He had a cool. Judicial, constructive mind, which kept him from 
party extremes and usually on the middle ground of modera- 
tion. He was in close sympathy with Washington. Their 
spirits were in accord, only Washington was more a man of 
action, while Madison was more a man of meditation. In the 
formation of the constitution he sought to put strength into the 
general government over the states, in all that was peculiarly 
national. He wanted a nation, a union that was indissoluble — 
not only a union of states but of all the people. For national 
purposes, he would have state lines in abeyance. The old con- 
federacy was too weak as a national compact. It was too much 



174 OUR PRESIDEKTS. 

subject to state dictation. All the wise men were feeling this ; 
so much so that many were beginning to swing back toward 
monarchical institutions. The states were jealous of their 
rights, and in the convention sought to keep them strong. 
Under the confederacy, they had been almost supreme. They 
were slow to give up prerogatives to the general government. 
This, then, was the great thing to adjust, the proper balance 
between the state governments and the general government. 
Mr. Madison did not secure all he desired for the general gov- 
ernment. And the experience of a hundred years has proved 
that the general government has been often put to the strain in 
just those places where he wanted it stronger. Its weakest 
place was against the states. And it was just at this point 
that the rebellion of 18G1 came in. Here too was where South 
Carolina nullification set up its claim in the administration of 
Andrew Jackson. It was over this that the great arguments of 
Haynes and Webster were made. There has always been a class 
of politicians who have claimed more for the states than the 
general government could safely grant. This weakness in the 
constitution, allowed against Mr. Madison's judgment, has 
always been a bone of contention and cost us one great civil 
war. Our experience has proved how wise was the great orig- 
inal outliner of the constitution. Gradually its special amend- 
ments have fortified its original weakness. Experience has 
proved that the moderate federalists were essentially right in 
their notion of the necessity of strength in the general govern- 
ment, and that our danger has come from a too little governed 
democracy. As between the dangers of monarchy on one side 
and democracy on the other, America has been most exposed to 
the latter. Her chief danger still lies in that direction. A 
strong and just government usually makes a happy people, just 
as a well-governed family or school is usually happy. So essen- 
tial was the part that Mr. Madison acted in the constitutional 
convention that he has been called "The Father of the Consti- 
tution. " He seems to have been raised up for this special work 
as Washington was to lead the armies, and Jefferson to draft 
the declaration of independence and Adams to argue the way 



James Madison. 175 

to its adoption. And of all the work done by the founders of 
this great nation, nothing ever has been more important than 
the constitution of the United States. It is the great charter of 
our nationality, the most magnificent work of human* wisdom 
3"et done in this world. The nations have not 3"et sufficiently 
appreciated it ; nor have our own people yet done full justice to 
the mind, character and life of James Madison, who is as liter- 
ally the father of the constitution as Washington is of the 
country. 

THE FEDERALIST. 

After the constitution was formed, a series of state papers 
was written in its explanation and defense, and published all 
over the country, and read and studied with more profound 
interest, than any such papers ever put forth in this country. 
After their first publication, they were gathered into a book 
entitled: "The Federalist." They became authority for the 
meaning and philosophy of the constitution. Their intellectual 
power, their clear elucidation of the intent and scope of the 
constitution, were so marked that they have always been held 
as master pieces of political philosophy. They were produced 
by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay. Hamil- 
ton is supposed to have made the first draft of more of them 
than either of the others, and Madison next. But none of them' 
went to press till the three had agreed in all their statements. 
They were thus the joint product of the three minds. As Mr. 
Madison was the mover in and originator of more of the con- 
stitution than any other, his part in "The Federalist," is 
apparent. 

No thoughtful young American should consider himself 
equipped as a citizen, till he has not only read, but studied, 
"The Federalist." 

A MEMBER OF CONGRESS. 

In 1789, the time when the constitution went into operation, 
Mr. Madison was made a member of Congress. He thus began 
with AVashington the conduct of the new government. Mr. 



176 OtJR PRESIDENTS. 

Hamilton was Washington's secretary of the treasury. The coun- 
try was in a bad financial condition; debts everywhere, and nothing 
to pay them with. Mr. Hamilton was a bold operator and full 
of great schemes. His financial plans did not meet Mr. Madi- 
son's approval; so he was forced into the attitude of opposition 
to many of the things of Washington's administration; but his 
opposition was so tempered with friendly consideration, that it 
did not disturb the good relations between the father of his 
country and the father of the constitution. He served in Con- 
gress eight years. During Mr. Adams' administration, ''The 
alien and sedition laws " were passed, and other high federalist 
measures, which became unpopular. Mr. Madison drafted two 
series of resolutions against them, one as a private citizen in 
1798, and one as a member of the Virginia legislature in 1799, 
which had a powerful influence against the federal rule and for 
the speedy triumph of the democratic party under Jefferson. 

SECRETARY OF STATE. 

Thomas Jefferson was elected president of the United States 
in 1801. He appointed Mr. Madison secretary of state, which 
office he held during the eight years of Mr. Jefferson's service. 
Scarcely could Mr. Jefferson have made a wiser choice. Mr. 
Jefferson was a man of strong impulses and radical action and 
speech. He was liable, under provocation, to be an extremist. 
He was elected as a radical democrat; whom the high fMeralists 
regarded as a leveler, a Jacobin, a contemner of law and religion. 
They dreaded his election as they would that of Lucifer. 
Extreme feelings were in the ascendant. Mr. Madison had all 
along been a moderate federalist; was a moderate man always; 
was profoundly respected by all parties; was one of the authors 
of " The Federalist," which was that party's political bible. His 
appointment to the first office in the cabinet was an assurance of 
moderation in the democratic president, and encouraged the 
federalists to hope that all was not lost. And this, which 
worked so well in the beginning, worked equally well through 
the whole administration. 



JAMES MADISON. 177 



FOURTH PRESIDENT. 



Mr. Madison succeeeded Mr. Jefferson as president, in 1809, 
being the fourth to hold that high office. He went in with a 
strong majority, having one hundred and twenty-two votes out 
of one hundred and seventy-six. 

He took the great office at a gloomy period. The domestic 
affairs of the nation were getting more peaceful. The people 
were learning self-government, and learning to have more con- 
fidence in each other and their government. They were learn- 
ing too not to see ruin in each others' opinions ; not to see a 
throne in a federalist's opinions ; nor a French revolution in a 
democrat's. But there was trouble brewing with England. She 
had never been satisfied with the result of the revolution ; had 
been sulky and sour ever since, and making herself disagreeable 
to her former colonists. She deemed herself mistress of the seas, 
and that other nations, especially her old colonists, had no rights 
that she was bound to respect. So she infringed on American 
rights on the high seas ; went aboard American merchant vessels, 
when she pleased, and took off such of the crews as she thought 
would make good soldiers, and forced them into her army and 
navy to fight her battles; and did all such things as she chose, 
without any respect for her treaty obligations. 

Various appeals and measures were adopted to rectify these 
grievous wrongs; but all to no effect. With a high hand, Eng- 
land kept going on her own way; impressing our seamen into 
her service whenever it suited her necessities; and doing many 
other unworthy acts. Mr. Madison was peaceful, and dreaded 
war; and so went on a couple of years, bearing and persuading; 
but all to no purpose. By this time his party had a strong ma- 
jority in Congress. Among the leaders were such men as Henry 
Clay, John C. Calhoun, Crawford, Lowndes, and otliers like 
them. They said: " We must fight the old oppressor. She will 
never do right till we compel her to." So they began a move- 
ment for creating an army and navy, and getting ready the 
munitions of war; and pushed it on till they felt the time had 
come to begin to strike again military blows for our rights. 
13 



178 OUR PRESIDENTS. 



WAR WITH EKGLAND. 



In June, 1812, Congress declared war against England. 

President MadisoA gave a message to Congress and the country, 
detailing at length the belligerent course of England for years 
toward the United States, while the United States had remained 
at peace toward her. 

Under pretence of searching for British subjects, she had 
impressed thousands of our seamen, transported them to other 
and deadly climes; had compelled them to expose their lives in 
battle and endure every hardship in foreign services; had sub- 
jected them to the severest discipline; her cruisers had violated 
the rights of peace on our coasts, by harrassing our outgoing 
and incoming vessels of commerce; had wantonly spilt American 
blood within the territory of our jurisdiction ; had blockaded 
ports without the presence of adequate force, cutting off our 
markets and injuring our commerce; had invaded the rights of 
neutrals; and rendered all trade on the seas precarious and dan- 
gerous. To all our appeals for redress she has only returned 
insult. The message was long and able, and summed the whole 
cause of war. 

It was thirty years since the revolutionary war; the old war- 
riors were dead. No new ones had been made in their stead. 
None of the living generation knew much about war. 

The first campaigns, therefore, were only defeats; or perhaps 
schools of discipline for the final victory. Then, as in our late 
war, our soldiers and officers had to be made. The first battles 
went against us. The first campaigns gave encouragement to 
the enemy; but as soon as time and necessity could drill our 
soldiers, and select well our officers, England found that the 
sons of her colonies were as hard to conquer, as were their 
fathers. 

The war was pushed on vigorously for nearly three years, 
when a treaty of peace was signed at Ghent, on the twenty -fourth 
of December, 1814. On the eighth day of January, 1815, Gen- 
eral Jackson gained his decisive victory, over the British, at New 
Orleans. In February, 1815, news of peace reached Washing- 



JAMES MADISON. 179 

ton. Great was the rejoicing all over the country. The Avar 
was strongly opposed by the federalists, who did many things in 
opposition to it, which rendered them unpopular; and brought 
utter defeat upon their party. 

Early in 1815, a treaty of commerce was signed at London, 
by Messrs. Adams, Clay and Gallatin, which restored friendly 
intercourse between the two countries, never, we may hope, to 
be broken up again by the barbarous scourge of war. 

Mr. Madison's administration went on satisfactorily through 
his two terms. After the war, a national bank was established 
with a capital of thirty-five millions ; a tariff for the promotion 
of manufactures was adopted, and tlie country well started on 
that tide of prosperity that has not yet abated. 

RETIREMENT IN 1817. 

Mr. Madison retired to Montpelier, his home, in March, 
1817, at sixty-six years of age. Twelve years later he served in 
the Virginia convention for the revision of the constitution. 
With that exception the rest of his life was spent in the quiet of 
his home, in the enjoyment of his friends, his books, and the 
national life and peace he had spent so much of his life to 
secure. 

Like Jefferson, he was interested in the University of Vir- 
ginia, and was for a time its rector. 

He died June 28, 1836, eighty-five years and three 
months old. 

He was never of robust health, which made his life less 
robust and infiuential than it would have been if he had had 
the physical stamina that was needed to work up to its best his 
fine mind. 

He was of moderate stature; moderate of speech; of serious, 
but mild expression; his head was bald on the top; he was 
modest, but companionable ; made many friends ; a few, if any, 
enemies. He went into retirement in the universal respect of 
his countrymen, and bore that respect ever after. 



180 OUR PRESIDENTS. 



MRS, MADISON. 

Mrs. Madison's maiden name was Dolly Payne. She was born 
in North Carolina, of Quaker parents, and educated strictly in 
their faith and ways of life. When about eighteen she married 
a young lawyer by the name of Todd, and moved to Phila- 
delphia. There she laid aside the Quaker garb and became a 
fashionable young woman of city society. Her husband lived 
but a little while, and she was left in the morning of her life a 
widow. 

When Mr. Madison was attending Congress in New York 
city, in the forty-third year of his age, he met the blooming and 
somewhat gay Mrs. Todd. Like many others, he was taken 
with her fascinations. In his early years he had an unfortunate 
love experience, and had supposed himself proof against cupid's 
darts from every quarter; but now he was struck, and badly so, 
by a dart from this young widow's quiver. In due time he won the 
coveted prize, and was married to her in 1794. And she proved 
a prize indeed. She is spoken of by those who knew her as 
elegant and queenly in person and manner; as beautiful, 
sprightly, intelligent, and every way worthy. Her peculiar power 
was in social life. She was the beau ideal of a court lady of the 
time, genial, kindly, the grace and warmth and sprightliness of 
society. She was peculiarly thoughtful to the timid, young and 
unfortunate; was as warm of heart as sprightly in spirit. While 
Mr. Madison was secretary of state under Mr. Jefferson, she 
did the honors of the president's house, as he was without a 
wife. Then, as Mr. Madison came in, she was already installed 
in her place of honor and helpfulness, and continued through 
his two terms, making sixteen years as the lady of the executive 
mansion — the longest term that any lady has occupied that 
place. And none has more graced it, or rendered herself more 
helpful in it. In their retirement at Montpelier Mr. and Mrs. 
Madison tasted all the sweets of their well-earned honors. Happy 
in each other, and necessary to each other ; they were rich in 
money, goods and friends; had both their widowed mothers and 
two orphan sisters of Mrs. Madison in their household, all in 



JAMES MADISON. 181 

the enjoyment of comfortable health. Their home was the 
resort of the wisest and best, whom they received with grace 
and hospitality. 

Take them all in all, few lives of men present better models 
for men and Avomen to copy than Mr. and Mrs. Madison. They 
were delightful people, lifted high up in the world, yet humble; 
intellectual and in many ways brilliant, yet in sweet sympathy 
with all common people; rich, yet they gave their lives to the 
world in a cheerful and laborious fellow service; brought up in 
wealth, yet never proud ; official partisans, yet honored and 
loved by all parties; devoted to an established chui-ch, yet the 
ardent friends of religious liberty; descendants of an ancient aris- 
tocracy, yet democrats in life and spirit. The author of this too 
hasty sketch can scarcely refrain from asking the readers of this 
to seek Mr. Madison^s life and works and make them a study. 

It ought to have been said, in its place, that Mr. Madison 
kept a full record of the proceedings of the constitutional con- 
vention, the only one ever kept and preserved, and that after 
his death Congress purchased it of Mrs. Madison, paying her 
thirty thousand dollars. She survived Mr. Madison thirteen 
years. She died July 12, 1849, in the eighty-second year of her 



^HE ilRAVE OF IaMES ^ADISON. 

Four miles from Orange, Virginia, is Montpelier, the nome 
of James Madison, which he inherited when a child from his 
father. It is in one of the most picturesque and softly beauti- 
ful regions of this state. Gentle undulations of hill and dale, 
and wavy outlines of low mountain ranges, surround it. Lawn, 
tree and shrubbery, field, wood and hillside, give softness and 
diversity to the scene. Here lived and died the fourth Presi- 
dent and his beautiful and accomplished wife, and here rest 
their mortal forms. 

The mansion is large and plain, though beautiful. It is 
built of brick and is more extensive than most of the noted 



182 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

Virginia residences. It is well preserved, and everything in 
and about it is cared for with excellent taste and conscientious 
regard for its history. Around it is a beautiful lawn of some 
sixty acres, surrounded by a variety of large trees, many of 
them planted, it is said, by the hand of Mrs. Madison. Some- 
where near the center of this open field or lawn, in an enclosure 
of about a hundred feet square, surrounded by a brick wall 
about five feet high, is the grave of Madison. All about it is 
peaceful and harmonious like Madison himself. Four graves 
occupy this quiet enclosure. Over the grave of Madison, is a 
mound of earth, from the top of which rises a granite obelisk 
some twenty feet high. Near the base is the inscription: 

lltllllDllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllilllllllllllllllB 

I Born March 16, 1751. | 

SiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiJJiiiiiiii'iiiiii 

By its side rises a smaller marble shaft with this inscription: 

* i 

J In Memory of J 

f WIFE OF JAMES MADISON. ] 
{ Born May 20, 1768; J 

Died July 8, 1849, O. S. j 



•<cz, 




CHAPTER VI. 



JAMES MOH"EOE. 

Fifth President of the United States. 



ANCESTRT AND YOUTH. 



Jp-AMES MONROE was of Scotch descent, having come 
fe. from a family of Scotch cavaliers, who were descend- 
^TiP^ ants from Hector Monroe, an officer of Charles I. 
^ He was born April 28, 1758. Coming from such a 
'tf stock, he started life with an amount of brain and blood 
1 ^ force that was quite likely to make itself felt in the new 
country in which it had taken form. Spence Monroe, 
of Westmoreland county, Virginia, was his father, and Eliza 
Jones, of King George county, was his mother. She was sister 
of Joseph Jones, who served Virginia twice in the Continental 
Congress, and as district judge in his own county. The 
measure of her force may be known somewhat by her brother 
and her son. It has passed into a common remark that great 
men are the sons of strong mothers. His father and mother 
were both Virginia born. So he was well born as to parentage, 
the best fortune that can befall one at the beginning of life. 

The locality where he was born and reared was Westmorland 
county, between the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers, a region 
of great fertility, finely watered, of varied and beautiful scenery, 
which had attracted the attention of the most intelligent settlers 
from England, on account of its many advantages. It was 
between two grand rivers; but little above tide-water; originally 

183 



184 OUll PRESIBEXTS. 

heavy-timberec';:* bearing a great variety of natural products; in 
a mild climate; "witli rock and mineral in abundance. So lie 
was well born as to pla^e. 

This county and vicinity was settled by some of the best 
comers from England. Lord ]l?'airfax and his brother and fine 
family made their wilderness home here. Lawrence and George 
Washington and the other Washingtons grew up here. Thomas 
Jefferson, James Madison, Patrick Henry, Peyton and John 
Randolph, Richard Henry Lee and Henry Lee (Light Horse 
Harry, as he was called), John Marshall, Pendleton, Wythe, 
Nicolas, Dabney Carr, and many more worthy to be their asso- 
ciates, were the products of this vicinity. So numerous were 
its great and patriotic men, that some of their biographers have 
called it " The Athens of America.*^ It is not without reason 
that Virginians of this region, so fruitful of historic men, have 
had a pride in Virginia society. In this society, in its best days, 
James Monroe was born and reared. So, as to society, he was 
well born. 

At Williamsburg, in this vicinity, the seat of the colonial 
government, was founded and flourished William and Mary 
college, which at this time had an annual income of some 
twenty thousand dollars, and had been in operation over a hun- 
dred years ; next m age to Harvard college. It had had a good 
history as to professors, classes and work, and had done much 
to fill that community with a class of educated men. Albe- 
marle academy was located at CharlotteVille, a village m this 
vicinity, which was converted into Central college and then 
into the University of Virginia, of famous history. Other 
academies and private schools did good* work for education in 
all this region. 

The PM-Beta-Ka2)pa society, so noted among college men, 
•the chapters of which are connected with so many modern col- 
leges, was formed at William and Mary college, December 5, 
177G. Its first meeting is said to have been held in Apollo hall 
of the old Raleigh tavern, which was a kind of Virginia "cradle 
of liberty," like Faneuil Hall of Boston. The names of John 
Marshall and Bushrod Washington appear in the list of the first 



JAMES MONKOE. 185 

members. Many excellent libraries were founded here ; books 
abounded ; classical literature was common. So James Monroe 
was well born as to education and its influence in the community. 

Nearly this entire vicinity was occupied by families who held 
large estates, and who came here with means to establish them- 
selves in good old English fashion. They were large agricult- 
urists who made their calling independent and honorable. It 
was a community of few dangers to young men. The church ^ 
of England held its strong influence over all. So as to the 
moral tone of the community, James Monroe was well born. 

Little has come down to us of the boyhood of James Monroe. 
No early biography was written of him. He has gone into his- 
tory as lacking brilliancy of character action, and so has had no 
biographical limner to draw carefully the outlines of his early life. 
Fifty years efficient public service; fifty years intimate association 
with and confidence of many of the greatest men of his time; 
eight years of the conduct of the chief magistracy of the nation 
in such a way as to destroy all enemies, all opposing parties, and 
bring in "the era of good feeling," as his administration was 
called ; it would seem ought to bring for a man some apprecia- 
tive biographers, but in his case it did not; so the details of his 
early life are left in that obscurity which shrouds *Hhe simple 
annals of the poor." 

A SOLDIEE. 

The third Virginia regiment, under Colonel Hugh Mercer, 
appeared at Washington's headquarters at Harlem, New York, 
in 1776. James Monroe, eighteen years of age, was a lieutenant 
in that regiment. He was a student in William and Mary col- 
lege when the war broke out. As a youth he had heard all 
about the British oppressions of the colonists; the taxation 
without representation; the "Stamp act;" the Bostonians pitch- 
ing the tea into the sea; the British possession of Boston; the 
Lexington, Concord and Bunker Hill fights; the calling of a 
Continental Congress; the appointment of Washington com- 
mander-in-chief; the declaration of independence; the pushing 
forward the war, and iiqw, as the call for soldiers came, he shut 



186 OUR PRESIDEN^TS. 

up his books, and, with other students, joined the third Vir- 
ginia regiment; was elected to a lieutenancy and marched off to 
headquarters, two or three hundred miles away. His election 
to the imj)ortant office of lieutenant of the regiment indicates 
the estimate his associates put upon him. 

After reaching the army he soon found himself in active ser- 
vice. He was in the skirmish at Harlem, which followed right 
on September 16; the battle at White Plains, October 28, and 
then the long retreat through New Jersey, fighting all the way, 
ending with the battle of Trenton, in which he received a 
severe wound in the shoulder. Captain William Washington 
and Lieutenant Monroe led the left wing of the American forces 
in that battle, and did good service in making complete the 
British rout, and reviving the American cause. 

After recovering from his wound, he served as a volunteer 
aide, with the rank of Major, on the staff of the Earl of Stir- 
ling, and took part in the battles of Brandy wine, September 11; 
of Germantown, October 4, and of Monmouth, June 28, 1778. 
This temporary promotion lost him his regular place in the con- 
tinental army, so he was detailed to return to Virginia and raise 
a new regiment, with letters from Stirling and General Wash- 
ington. But the exhausted state of the country prevented this, 
and the effect of his failure to raise a new regiment, and his loss 
of place in the line, for a time almost completely disheartened 
him. He was modest and self-deprecating, and the closing up 
of the military way before him, threw him into such a state of 
self-distrust that he thought to hide from society and become a 
recluse. 

But Jefferson, then governor of Virginia, was his friend, 
and invited him into his office to study law and assist him in 
such ways as he could. His uncle. Judge Jones, favored his 
acceptance of the invitation, and so he joined his fortune with 
Jefferson's thus early, and the two became life-long friends. 
This decision was perhaps the key that unlocked to him the gate to 
that fortunate way that he pursued through the whole of his life. 
The closing of the military way before him he thought had 
ruined his prospects, and defeated his young life, and yet, m^ore 



JAMES MONROE. 187 

than likely it was the "blessing in disguise" which turned his 
feet into the way of greater usefulness and honor. 

A LEGISLATOR, 

In 1783, when twenty- three years of age, Mr. Monroe was 
elected to the Assembly of Virginia. The next year, when 
twenty-four, he was elected to Congress and served three years. 
During this time Washington resigned his commission and Mr. 
Monroe was present. In Congress he was an active and working 
member, young as he was. He was in Congress three years. 
The next year he was elected to the Virginia Legislature. He 
was a member of the Virginia Convention which accepted the 
United States Constitution. He was opposed to it. He was 
afraid it was too monarchical; that it conferred too much power 
on the executive; that he might make himself a king; that the 
friends of the constitution secretly cherished purposes of making 
it still more monarchical. He made speeches against it, and it 
was adopted against his influence. The strong democrats of the 
time found great fault with the constitution. It was really a 
federal document; it embodied federal doctrines; was an epitome 
of modern federalism. Twenty-eight years afterward, in a letter 
to Andrew Jackson, he explained some of his reasons for oppos- 
ing it. They grew chiefly out of his distrust of some of the 
federal leaders. Like Jefferson, who at first opposed it, he 
became a strong friend of it. 

December 6, 1790, he took his seat in the United States 
Senate, under the constitution which he opposed, and took his 
oath to sustain it. 

He was not conspicuous as a debater; nor noted as a great 
constitutional statesman; nor as a leader in the philosophy and 
principles of government; but as a practical, considerate, busi- 
ness legislator, faithful, hard-working, pains-taking. His dis- 
trust of the federal leaders, and especially of Hamilton, made 
him generally unfriendly to Washington's administration, 
though he was always on terms of personal friendship with 
Washington. The political feud of the times was a strong 
one, and he shared much of its one-sidedness and bitterness. 



188 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

Virginia, an aristocratic, slave-holding state, produced many 
radical democrats, who sympathized intensely with the French 
cry of '^ Liberty and equality." Mr. Monroe was among them. 

A MINISTER ABROAD. 

May 28, 1794, when thirty-six of age, Mr. Monroe was com- 
missioned minister to France. His opposition to Washington's 
administration and to the federalists who had a strong influence 
with Washington, would have unfitted him for such an appoint- 
ment, according to modern party politics. But Washington 
had confidence in Monroe, and his strong interest in the French 
cause of liberty would make him acceptable to the party in 
power in France, Mr. Monroe reached Paris just as Robes- 
pierre's career had closed. He was introduced into the French 
convention of citizens, as it was called, as "Citizen James Mon- 
roe, minister plenij)otentiary from the United States near the 
French republic," August 15, 1794, and made a written address 
which was read in French by the secretary. It abounded in 
expressions of sympathy for the cause of liberty in France. This 
gave offense to many of the administration officials at home, and 
he was lectured for his over-warm sympathy with the popular 
party in the French republic. He went to France to prevent a 
war with France. Mr. Jay had been sent to England to prevent 
an embroilment with England. Monroe found it difficult to get 
a hearing in France. The new government was not receiving 
ambassadors, and had only coldness for him. He went outside 
of all routine and got a hearing in the popular convention. It 
seemed to those who had sent him, a partisan, over-hasty and 
ill-advised movement, liable to make trouble in England. His 
warmth for France made enemies at home who were very severe 
on his course. Mr. Jay made a treaty with England which dis- 
pleased Monroe and the French. He called it hard names, and 
was called hard names in return for doing so. The French 
became warlike again. Mr. Monroe quieted them by sympatliy 
with them and urging them to moderation, and to wait the end 
of Washington's administration. Just at this time he was 
recalled; he came home cut to the quick, and passed by AVash- 



James mokroE. 180 

ington without giving him a call. He published a volume of 
five hundred pages in self-defense. The party critics against 
him, devoured it in piecemeal. His party friends defended him. 
A great newspaper war raged for a time. About as much fault 
was found with Jay and his treaty with England and with Wash- 
ington for recommending its acceptance. But it turned out 
that there was no war with France or England and good treaties 
of amity and commerce were made with both nations, indicating 
that both men understood the situation in hand better than 
their critics at home. The war of words against them Avas 
carried on more with party gall than with common sense or 
patriotism. This country was a caldron of hot misunderstand- 
ings at this time. 

In 1801, Spain ceded Louisiana to France. At once there 
sprang up a fever of anxiety in the United States as to what 
France was proposing to do with it. " We must have it," was 
the common saying among the people. Some one in Congress 
proposed to purchase it ? Congress appropriated two millions 
of dollars for that purpose ; and Mr. Jefferson, then president, 
appointed Mr. Monroe a special minister to France on this mis- 
sion. Mr. Robert E. Livingston was already our minister in 
France, and was moving as he could in the same matter. In a 
few weeks after Mr. Monroe's arrival in France, they succeeded 
in making the purchase, which was ratified by Napoleon 
Bonaparte in May, 1803. The price paid was fifteen million 
dollars, — the grandest bargain ever made by any nation. It 
was a peaceful purchase of an empire, as one farmer would 
buy a farm of another. 

Four nations were interested in this transaction — Spain 
England, France and the United States. Six individuals were 
chiefly instrumental in it — Jefferson, Livingston and Monroe 
for the United States, and Bonaparte, Talleyrand and Marbois, 
for France. Wlien it was accomplished, the plenipotentiaries 
rose and shook hands; and Livingston said: *'We have lived 
long, but this is the noblest work of our whole lives." 

Mr. Monroe proceeded at once to England as minister to St. 
James, leaving France this time in a more satisfactory frame of 



190 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

mind than he left it before. He soon returned to France as 
envoy to Spain, and in this mission he was to treat with the 
Spanish minister in Paris, concerning the purcliase of Florida. 
But after several months' effort he returned to England, without 
accomplishing his object. 

While in England, Mr. Monroe, in connection with Mr. 
Pinkney, conducted a long series of interviews with special 
English ministers, Lords Auckland and Holland, concerning 
English impressment of seamen, and other unwarrantable trans- 
actions on the high seas. They succeeded at last in forming a 
treaty, but it was so unsatisfactory to President Jefferson that 
he refused to offer it to the Senate for consideration, and so the 
long efforts at diplomacy failed, and things went on from bad to 
worse between the two nations, till the war of 1812 brought its 
bloody arbitrament. 

Lord Holland, in his history of the whig party, speaking of 
this treaty, which he helped to form, says: "Mr. Jefferson 
refused to ratify a treaty which would have secured his country- 
men from all further vexations, and prevented a war between 
two nations whose habits, language and interests should unite 
them in perpetual alliance and good fellowshiji.'' 

President Jefferson did in haste, and doubtless in no good 
temper, take upon himself to decide what belonged to the Senate 
to decide, and the failure to ratify the treaty, left the ill temi^er 
between the two nations to rise to war heat, and the second war 
with England was the result. It looks now as though Mr. 
Jefferson's responsibility in that war was great, if his act was 
not the fatal failure to avert it. 

Late in 1807, Mr. Monroe returned to America, having 
accomplished but little with Spain and England ; and at once 
published an elaborate defense of his well-meant endeavors. 

GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA. 

The Virginia of the olden time was usually prompt to recog- 
nize the talent and worth of her sons. 

When Mr. Monroe returned from France the first time under 
the cloud of a peremptory recall from the secretary of state, and 



JAMES MONROE. 191 

felt himself obliged to defend himself in a published volume, his 
native state promptly elected him her governor, which position 
he held for three years. 

Again, when he returned from England, at the next guber- 
natorial election, she honored him in the same way, believing he 
had been faithful in his foreign trust. But he soon resigned the 
place, being called by President Madison, in 1811, to the office of 

SECRETARY OF STATE. 

He had been much talked of as a candidate for the presidency, 
in opposition to Mr. Madison, many of the same party preferring 
him. He took this important place at a period of great anxiety 
and danger. Our minister in England, Mr. Eussell, had just 
written to our government that the insolence of England in rela- 
tion to the impressment of our seamen, the search of our vessels 
for British seamen, and all the differences between the two gov- 
ernments, was so offensive and dictatorial, that war could not be 
honorably avoided. This soon became the conviction of Presi- 
dent Madison's government ; and war was declared June 18, 181 2. 
The declaration of war was drawn by William Pinkney, and 
communicated to England by James Monroe; the two men who, 
a few years before, as our ministers to England, had labored so 
hard to convince England of her bad faith and her unjust treat- 
ment of our ships and seagoing countrymen. Then came right 
on the second war with England. It opened with a series of 
disasters to our arms. War is a trade and a science — a trade 
with the soldiers, a science with the leaders. We had neither 
trained leaders or soldiers. The revolutionary leaders and sol- 
diers were too old. The mantles of their experience had not 
fallen on the shoulders of their sons. The new generation had 
to learn war the same way their fathers did — in the midst of its 
havoc .and horror. 

England sent against us her best trained officers and soldiers. 
She remembered the revolution, and knew she had a foe worthy 
of her best forces. They had their own way for awhile. Our 
government was poorly prepared for the onslaught. Our navy 
was almost nothing; our army was a shadow. There was much 



192 OUR PEESIDEKTS. 

opposition to the war among our people. It put a stop to much 
New England business, and jeopardized much property and life. 
The old federalists aroused themselves and called it a democratic 
war, a party war. In New England a strong body of the wealthy, 
conservative, influential men, opposed it. This made the equip- 
jjing of an army all the more difficult. But the trailing of the 
stars and stripes in the dust, the presence of British red-coats 
on our soil, as enemies, soon stirred patriotic blood, and money, 
and soldiers, and experience, came in due time ; the opposition 
subsided, and victorsy came in the end ; and an end of war with 
our mother country, it is hoped. 

As secretary of state, Mr. Monroe had a more difficult task, 
because of the inefficiency of General Armstrong, who was 
secretary of war. After many failures, Armstrong was removed, 
and Mr. Monroe was entrusted with the double duties of secre- 
tary of war and secretary of state. He prosecuted his duties 
with great vigor, and in due time brought the war to an honor- 
able close. 

Toward the close of 1814, Mr. Monroe saw the exposure of 
New Orleans and its vicinity, and resolved to defend it. The 
finances of the country were at a low ebb, and to raise the neces- 
sary money he pledged his private property in addition to the 
pledge of the government, and so obtained the money; defended 
New Orleans ; conquered the enemy, January 8, 1815, under 
General Jackson ; and closed the war. 

FIFTH PRESIDENT. 

On the fourth of March, 1817, Mr. Monroe was inaugurated 
president of the United States, with Daniel D. Tompkins, vice- 
president, in the fifty-ninth year of his age. Washington was 
made president at fifty-seven; John Adams at sixty-one; Jeffer- 
son in his fifty-eighth year, and Madison in his fifty-eighth. 
Mr. Monroe received one hundred and eighty-three electoral 
votes; Eufus King, the federalist candidate, received thirty-four. 
His vigorous conduct of the war had made him popular, and 
nearly destroyed the federal party. He made John Quincy 



James JioisfRoi!. 19'S 

Adams, his secretary of state; John C. Calhoan, secretary of 
war; W. H. Crawford, secretary of treasury; and William Wirt, 
attorney-general. They were among the strongest men of the 
time. They were younger than Monroe ; Adams being fifty ; 
Calhoun, thirty-five; Crawford, forty-four, and Wirt, forty-five. 
They all remained in their places during the eight years of Mr. 
Monroe's administration. It was a strong and harmonious 
administration, and especially strong in its cabinet. 

Mr. Monroe went into the presidency on the popular tide 
given him by his successful conclusion of the war; and he 
sought to keep the good favor of the people he had won, by 
journeys among them. Under the plea of looking after the 
fortifications on the coast and frontier which Congress had 
resolved to establish, he traveled through the east, north, west 
and south, stopping often to receive the salutations of the people, 
to make and hear speeches, sit at great dinners, and partici- 
pate in the pageant of great demonstrations. The war was 
over; the old enemy conquered a second time; peace was in all 
the land, and the president who had done so much to bring 
about these happy results, was out shaking hands with his 
rejoicing people. Well might his administration be called "the 
era of .good feeling." There were important things to be done; 
but it was easy to do them when many helped and few hindered. 
The divided, bickering, suspicious, crotchety, ungovernable 
people of John Adams' time, had now become a happy family, 
perfectly assured in its ability to govern itself; confident that it 
had a nearly perfect constitution, and the best government and 
country and people on earth. At Mr. Monroe's second election 
there was but one vote cast against him; the federal party was 
dead; the political millennium had come. Happy president! 
Happy America! 

In 1818 a war broke out with the Semmole Indians in the 
extreme south. General Jackson was entrusted with its con- 
duct. He never did anything by halves. The Floridas were 
then territories of Spain. He followed the Indians into the 
Floridas ; established military posts there ; approved the sum- 
mary execution of two British subjects charged with inciting 
13 



104 oiH rin:sii)i:NTs. 

the Indians against the Americans, and by these high hmded 
l)roceedings came near involving his country in a war with both 
Sj)ain and England. But the conciliatory spirit of the adminis- 
tration prevailed, and war w^as avoided. 

Perhaps this experience incited a greater desire in our 
country to ])ossess the Floridas, and a greater willingness in 
Spain to part with them ; for a movement was soon made in 
which Mr. Adams, the secretary of state, made a purchase of 
Florida, February 22, 1819, thus securing the last of the Spanish 
territories adjacent to our settlements. No transactions of that 
generation were wiser than these purchases of Louisiana and 
Florida. They Avere peaceful, commercial, satisfactory and 
immensely important to our country and humanity. Florida 
lias now became the fruit garden of the country. 

Another subject of great interest came uj) in this adminis- 
tration. It was the admission of Missouri into the Union. 
Missouri was a slave territory. The extension of slavery had 
become an ambitious scheme of southern politicians. The 
differences between the South and North had not grown less 
under the constitution. 

Slavery, which at first extended over all the states, had 
retired from all the 'northern communities. It had become a 
southern institution, and grown up a state of society peculiar 
to itself, in which aversion to labor, class distinction, personal 
ease, dislike of all other forms of society, came to make a sort of 
oligarchy, distinct from the society the constitution was expected 
to foster. 

The North objected to receiving Missouri as a slave state ; 
the South insisted upon it. A great discussion arose, the begin- 
ning of the " irrepressible conflict " that came so near destroy- 
ing the Union. At length a compromise was agreed upon, 
which was called ''The Missouri Compromise," which agreed 
that Missouri should come in as a slave state, but that no slave 
territory should extend north of the line of thirty-six degrees 
thirty minutes. So the great settlement was effected, as the 
most of the people believed ; and there was much rejoicing. 
But there were those who thought they knew it was only post- 



JAMES MONROE. 105 

jDOiied to some future duy, as it proved. This compromise dates 
March 1, 1820. 

Still another great question came to the front in Monroe's 
time — that of ''Internal Improvements." It came u]) on the 
proposition to establish a great central national road from the 
east westward, to be extended as fast as settlements were 
extended. The bill brought before Congress was called " The 
Cumberland Eoad Bill." The friends of a strong government, 
preparing for war in times of peace, cementing its bonds by 
great arteries of travel and trade, assisting the people in affairs 
of national interest too great for individual enterprise, moved 
strongly for this project. It Avas a Federalist idea. 

The opposers of a strong government, who believed more in 
state governments, who feared central power and government 
monopolies, and were of the Jefferson school of thinking, 
opposed it. But the bill passed Congress, notwithstanding the 
federal party was dead. Its spirit still lived. 

But Monroe had been trained at the feet of Jefferson. He 
scented danger in such a great road, owned and controlled and 
travel-taxed by the general government; so he vetoed it, and in 
a long messsge gave his reasons; but his veto only put off the 
measure. This veto was given May 4, 1822. 

An event of very great interest to the whole people occurred 
in Monroe's administration. Congress invited Lafayette to 
revisit America. On May 10, 1824, he accepted the invitation, 
and came early in the fall. His journey through the states was 
an extended ovation. He and Monroe began their acquaintance 
and friendship in the revolutionary army. Now it was a joy to 
both to meet again in the midst of the grand fruits of their 
early labors and dangers. The people, the visitor, and the 
government joined to make the occasion one for cementing good 
feeling and giving strength and gladness to the whole country. 

That which marks Mr. Monroe and his administration more 
than anything else, is his official enunciation of what may prop- 
erly be called "The American Docrine," but which, on account 
of his explicit statement of it, has ever since been called "The 
Monroe Doctrine." In his message, December 2, 1823, in con- 



196 , OUR PRESIDENTS. 

sequence of Russian and other European overtures to our gov- 
ernment touching matters in different jDarts of the American 
continent, he spoke at length of our isohxtion from Europe and 
the sentiment that had grown up among us, that we must not 
entangle on selves with foreign alliances nor j^^rmit European 
interference in American affairs, either in our oivn or other 
American republics. The enunciation of the doctrine is inter- 
woven with the whole message; but a few passages pretty clearly 
state it : "That the American continent, by the free and inde- 
pendent condition which it has assumed and maintains, is 
henceforth not to be considered as a place for future colonization 
by any European powers." Again: "We owe it, therefore, to 
candor and to the amicable relations existing between the United 
States and those powers, to declare that we should consider any 
attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of 
this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety." It is 
further elucidated and applied in the message. The doctrine 
is, European hands off from American nationalities; we avoid 
foreign entanglements ; we do not permit foreign meddling. 
It does not seem that Mr. Monroe thought he was saying any- 
thing singular or of marked significance ; but because thus 
authoritatively said, it has gone into history as the Monroe 
doctrine. It was the common sentiment of the American writers 
and statesmen put forth in a presidential message. 

DOMESTIC RELATIONS. 

When Mr. Monroe was a member of Congress in New York, 
and about twenty-eight years of age, he married Miss Eliza 
Kortwright, daughter of Lawrence Kortwright, a resj)ectable 
gentleman of that city who had lost his fortune in the revolution. 
He made his home in Fredericksburg, Virginia, with a view to 
go into the practice of law; we have seen with what success. 

They had two daughters, Eliza, who married Judge George 
Hay, of Virginia, and Maria, who married Samuel L. Governeur, 
of New York. When her parents were in Paris, Eliza was a 
schoolmate with Hortense Beauharnais, daughter of Josephine, 



JAMES MONROE. 197 

and. step-daughter of the Emperor Napoleon, who became queen 
of Holland, and their teacher was the celebrated Madam Campan. 
The acquaintance of these school girls ripened into a life-long 
friendship. Eliza named a daughter Hortensia for Queen 
Hortense, who always retained a strong interest in her American 
namesake, and sent to her rich portraits of herself and sister, 
and Madam Campan. 

Mr. Monroe had a tender interest in his family and his rela- 
tives. He was a modest, kindly, plain man; considerate of all; 
simj)le and polite; a little awkward in manner; in stature about 
six feet ; compact, a little angular and bony in features and 
build; in youth and middle age strong and enduring. He made 
many friends and kept them. He served his country with a 
single purpose through more than five decades. He was often 
censured and sometimes publicly humiliated by his superiors in 
office, yet in the long run he has gained the approval of his 
countrymen. He is a standing proof that plain common sense, 
with good purpose and hearty industry, may serve the republic 
of a just and loyal people in its highest offices. 

In his later years Mr. Monroe served with Mr. Jefferson and 
Mr. Madison as regent of the Virginia university. His declin- 
ing years were harrassed with inadequate income. He gave his 
life to his country and was poorly paid. He was honored most 
by those who knew him best. In his life-time, his lack of bril- 
liancy prevented him from being generally estimated at his real 
worth; but as the years pass away his record brightens and his 
solid merits came to be more appreciated. Mr. Daniel C. 
Oilman gave to the world, only last year, an apj)reciative sketch 
of his life, and predicted that some future biographer would do 
him ample justice. 

The last years of Mr. Monroe's life were spent chiefly with 
his daughter, Mrs. Governeur, in New York. He died the 
fourth day of July, 1831, making the third president that died 
on that memorable day, about a year after the death of his wife. 
He Avas buried in New York. But the state of Virginia, on the 
one hundreth anniversary of the day of his birth, removed his 
remains to Richmond, that they might rest permanently in the 



198 OUR PRESIUEXTS. 

soil of his native state which he had so signally honored with a 
patriotic and self-sacrificing life. 



Ihe Crave of Iames JIonroe. 

After resting in its grave twenty-seven years in New York, 
where Mr. Monroe died, his body Avas removed to Eichmond, 
Virginia. It was received with great demonstrations of respect 
in the capital of his native state. The removal was made July 4, 
1858, and the re-interment July 5. Mottos expressive of the 
most loyal patriotism and the heartiest devotion to the union 
and liberty were hoisted over the streets. A vast procession 
moved slowly out to Hollywood cemetery bearing reverently and 
tenderly the honored dust of the fifth president of the United 
States, and the fourth from Virginia. To an eminence over- 
looking a long reach of the James river and its beautiful valley 
and a wide circuit of delightful country, in the southwestern 
and much-frequented part of the lovely cemetery, the sacred 
relics were borne and buried five feet under ground in a brick 
and granite vault. The vault was covered with a large, polished 
block of Virginia marble, eight feet long and four feet wide. 
On this, as a pedestal, rests a large granite sarcophagus, cut 
in the shape of a coffin. On the northern side of the sarcophagus 
is a brass plate, now dark with age, bearing this inscrij^tion : 

games ^onxoz. 

BoKN EST WestjMoreland Coltstty, 28th of April, 1758. 

Died in the City of New York, 4th of July, 1831. 

By Order of the General Assembly, 

His Remains were Removed to this Cemeteiy 5th of July, 1858, 

As an evidence of the 

Affection of Virginia for her Good and Honored Son. 

The ends and sides are filled in between the pillars with orna- 
mental cast-iroii grating, made so compact as to be difficult to 
look through the interstices. This unique monument will 
always mark, to every visitor, the grave of President Monroe 
from every other. 




J/ 2, JLiouhxJi 



ENGRAVED EXPREESSLr-FOF WEAVERS " Lr, ES A r. D GRAVES O F OUR PR E3, OENTS ." 




CHAPITER VII. 



JOHN QUINOY ADAMS. 

Sixth Pkesident of the United States. 



ANCESTRY, 



't^ 



j|HE name of John Quincy Adams is an inspiration to 
those who are in sympathy with the great men and 
^ . deeds of the great ages of mankind. He was the 
'^^y^ product of an ancestry and period, both of which put their 
forces into him in strong measure. He Avas born in 
stirring times, when men were earnestly considering the 
rights of man and conscience, and were profoundly moved by 
the questions of duty and life. 

John Quincy Adams was born July 11, 1767, in Braintree, 
Massachusetts, now Quincy, ten miles from Boston, when his 
father John Adams, second president of the United States, his 
neighbors, and the thinking men of the American colonies, were 
agitating the question of British oppressions and American 
rights. The Adamses were a vigorous race, solid and hardy in 
mind and body. They were of the genuine Puritan stock, 
strong-thinking, muscular, resolute, independent. They were 
descended from the hardy middle class of English society, which 
in those times craved better fortune and a freer life than were 
open to them in England. In this new, country they rose grad- 
ually to better and better conditions. More of them sought 
education, and were sought for jjlaces of public trust. Henry 
Adams was the first of the family in this country, who fled from 
religious persecution in Devonshire, England, soon after the 

199 



200 OUR PKESIDENTS. 

Mayflower landed her freight of pilgrims. Then Joseph, and 
Joseph his son, and deacon John Adams and his son John and 
John Quincy, furnish the succession. Through the whole line 
they were noted for "jiiety, humility, simplicity, prudence, 
patience, temperance, frugality, industry and perseverance," — 
the virtues that make genuine men. 

The mother of John Quincy Adams was Abigail Smith, 
aaughter of Rev. William Smith, who had descended from the 
Quincys. He received his name Quincy from his great-grand- 
father, on his mother's side. In a letter he once wrote, he said: 
" He was dying, when I was baptized ; and his daughter, my 
grandmother, present at my birth, requested that I might 
receive his name. The fact recorded by my father at the time, 
has connected with that portion of my name, a charm of 
mingled sensibility and devotion. It Avas the name of one pass- 
ing from earth to immortality. These have been among the 
strongest links of my attachment to the name of Quincy, and 
have been to me, through life, a perpetual admonition to do 
nothing unworthy of it." 

John Quincy was a gentleman of wealth, education and 
influence. He held many places of public trust and honor. 
Exemplary in private life, and earnest in piety, he enjoyed the 
public confidence through a civil career of forty years duration. 
Josiah Quincy, a gentleman of great attainments, who has lately 
passed away, Avrote an excellent biography of John Quincy 
Adams. The blood and the name of the Adamses and Quincys 
were thus mingled in him. 

Abigail Adams, his mother, was a woman of great personal 
ability and worth. Scarcely a woman of her time was her 
superior. Her letters constitute an interesting feature of the 
literature of her time, and show how, with less opportunity than 
the men of their time, the women nobly did their part in laying 
the foundations of American society. 

THE TIME. 

Times, as well as ancestors, have to do in the make-up of 
men. In 1761 there arose, in the Supreme Court of Massa- 



JOHN (iUINCY ADAMS. 201 

chusetts, a question as to the constitutionality of the laws by 
which Eingland was systematically taxing her colonies. The 
cause was argued for the i^;ing by the attorney-general, and, 
against the laws, by James Otis. The question involved was the 
very one which at last was settled by an appeal to arms. John 
Adams, then a young lawyer, was present. He recorded his 
opinion of Otis and the question at issue in these emphatic 
statements: "Otis was a flame of fire! With a promptitude of 
classical allusion, a depth of research, a rai)id summary 
of historical events and dates, a profusion of legal author- 
ities, a prophetic glance of his eyes into futurity, a rapid 
torrent of impetuous eloquence, he hurried away all before him. 
American independence, was then and there born. Every man 
of an unusually-crowded audience, appeared to me, to go away 
ready to take up arms against writs of assistance." On another 
occasion he said: ''James Otis then and there breathed into 
this nation the breath of life." This was six years before John 
Quincy Adams was born. 

In 17G5 the British Parliament passed the Stamp act, which 
made all transactions in the colonies illegal not recorded on 
stamped paper, which stamps must be bought of the crown. 
James Otis and John Adams argued against the constitutionality 
of the law before the governor and council of Massachusetts. 
This was two years before the birth of John Quincy Adams. 

John Adams was so wrought upon by these things that he 
wrote a dissertation on the canon and feudal laws, which showed 
the democratic spirit then active in him, and his ideas of the 
rights of the people. 

The colonies were so aroused by the Stamp act that it was 
repealed in 1766, one year before the birth of the younger 
Adams. In the year in which he was born, 1767, a law was 
passed taxing glass, paper, paints and tea. This roused the 
spirit of opposition to British oppression still more. John 
Adams was one of the leaders in that opposition in Boston, and 
his wife was joined with him in his stout determination to stand 
for the rights of the colonies. Of such parents and in such 
times was John Quincy Adams born, 



202 OUR PRESIDEXTS. 

The next year Boston held a meeting to instruct the Pro- 
vincial Legislature to oppose the British usurpations, and John 
Adams was on the committee to prepare the instructions, with 
Eichard Dana and Joseph Warren — the same Warren who fell 
on Bunker Hill, seven years later. On the fifth of March, 1770, 
a collision occurred between British soldiers and some citizens 
of Boston, in which five citizens were killed and many wounded, 
which was called "Bloody Massacre.'^ The excitement grew 
more and more intense every year, and the Adams family was in 
the heat of it. 

In December, 1773, the tea was destroyed in Boston harbor, 
and the harbor closed soon after. On September 5, 1774, the 
first American Congress met in Philadelphia, with John Adams 
as a member. In 1775, at his suggestion, George Washington 
was apj)ointed commander-in-chief of the American army, and 
on June 17 the battle of Bunker Hill was fought, with Mrs. 
Adams and her children looking from the summit of Penn's 
Hill, not far from their home, at the burning of Charlcstown, 
and hearing the distant roar of battle. The mother and chil- 
dren entered into the life of the times just as did Mr. Adams 
himself. During the siege of Boston, which followed right on, 
Mrs. Adams kept her house open to the soldiers in their needs, 
and often gave them food, shelter and sympathy. Her letters to 
him abound with descriptions of the fearful times, the sleepless 
nights and anxious days they were j)assing through, and the 
scenes in which she and her family had a part. The life, spirit 
and grandeur of those "times which tried men's souls" were 
felt by the Adamses as forcibly as by any who then lived. And 
it was in the midst of those times that John Quincy Adams 
came into being, charged with the life of the mighty jieriod; 
and its scenes, deeds and forces were among, his first teachers. 
It can not be otherwise than that he was made in part by these 
things. His soul was of his times — a product of the American 
revolution. 

HIS BOYHOOD. 

Usually boys are boys the Avorld over; but John Quincy 
Adams was an exception. Edward Everett Hale said of him: 



JOHN (iUINCY ADAMS. 203 

"There seemed to be in his life no such stage as boyhood." 
When about nine years old he wrote to his father in Congress 
this letter: 

Braintree, June 2, 1777. 

Dear Sir, — I love to receive letters very well, much better than I love 
to write them. I make a poor ligure at composition. My head is much too 
fickle. My thoughts are running after bird's eggs, play and trifles, till I get 
vexed with myself. Mamma has a troublesome task to keep me a studying. 
I own I am ashamed of myself. I have just entered the third volume of 
Rollin's History, but designed to have got half through it by this time. 
I am determined to be more diligent. Mr. Thaxter is absent at court. I 
have set myself a stint this week, to read the third volume half out. If I 
can but keep my resolution, I may again, at the end of the week, give a 
better account of myself. I wish, sir, you would give me, in writing, some 
instructions with regard to the use of my time, and advise me how to pro- 
portion my studies and play, and I will keep them by me and endeavor to 
follow them. With the present determination of growing better, I am, 
dear sir, your son, John Quincy Adams. 

P. S. — Sir, if j^ou will please be so good as to favor me with a blank 
book, I will transcribe the most remarkable passages I meet with in my 
reading, which will serve to fix them upon my mind. 

Very little of the boy in that. The first sentence or two is 
a little boy-like. The reference to the bird's eggs and play indi- 
cate that the boy was in him, but suppressed, and he was bound 
to crush him out. A nine-year-old reading Rollin's History and 
transcribing the most remarkable passages to fix them in his 
mind ! 

February 13, 1778, John Adams started on a mission to 
France to which he had been appointed by Congress. He took 
his son, then not quite eleven, with him. In a note he sent to 
his wife just as they were to enter the frigate to depart, he said: 
"Johnny sends his duty to his mamma, and his love to his 
sisters and brothers. He behaves like a man." 

"He behaves like a man!" Glad was the father no doubt 
to write that; but it indicates that the man was already getting 
the mastery of the. boy, that the training he was receiving from 
his parents and the times was rapidly developing the man. 

He learned the rudiments of an education in the village 
school of Braintree. In after life he often playfully boasted 



204 OUE PEESIDENTS, 

that the dame who taught him to spell flattered him into learn- 
ing his letters by telling him he would prove a scholar. A stu- 
dent in his father's office instructed him in the elements of 
Latin. 

Mr. Adams remained in Paris till June, 1779, when he and 
his son returned. In November, 1779, he went again to France 
to meet commissioners from England to negotiate a treaty of 
peace. Young Adams went again with his father. 

In July, 1780, Mr. Adams was appointed ambassador to the 
Netherlands, and his son was removed from the schools of Paris 
to those of Amsterdam, and later to the University of Leyden. 
There he studied till July of the next year, when, at the age of 
fourteen, he was invited by Francis Dana, minister from the 
United States to the Eussian court, to become his private sec- 
retary, and he accompanied him through Germany to St. Peters- 
burg. Beyond his official duties he found time to continue his 
Latin, French and German studies, together with English his- 
tory, until September, 1782, when he went to Stockholm and 
passed the winter. The next spring he went through Sweden 
to the Hague, where he met his father and went with him to 
Paris. He was present at the signing of the treaty of peace in 
1783. He went with his father to England visiting . eminent 
men and noted places; after which he returned^o Paris and his 
studies, till May, 1785, when both father and son returned to 
the United States. He was now eighteen years old. His father 
had just been appointed minister to England. Should he go 
with his father, or go to college? Here was a great temptation. 
He saw the glittering prospects of a life at the court of St. 
James; he knew he needed the drill and discipline of a college 
and professional course of study. His father's finances had suf- 
fered by his public service. The boy chose to go home to 
study and become an independent worker-out of his own for- 
tune. Wise choice, showing that the man and not the boy had 
control of him. After reviewing his studies under an instructor, 
he entered the junior class in Harvard college in March, 1786, 
a little before he was nineteen years of age. He graduated in 
1787 with the second honor of his class, and gave an oration 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 205 

on '' The Importance of Public Faith to the Well-being of a 
Community/' which was published on account of the interest 
felt in it. 

THE LAWYER. 

Now, at twenty years of age, young Adams entered upon the 
study of law, in the office of Theophilus Parsons, afterward 
chief justice of Massachusetts, at Newburyport. He was 
admitted to the bar in 1790. He at once opened an office in 
Boston. He was a stranger there, though born within ten 
miles. He afterward said of his practice. "I can hardly call 
it practice, because for the space of one year it would be difficult 
for me to name any j)ractice which I had to do. For two years, 
indeed, I can recall nothing in which I was engaged that may 
be termed practice, though during the second year, there were 
some symptoms that by persevering patience, practice might 
come in time. The third year, I continued this patience and 
perseverance, and having little to do, occupied my time as well 
as I could in the study of those laws and institutions which I 
have since been called to administer. At the end of the third 
year I had obtained something which might be called practice. 
The fourth year, I found it swelling to such an extent that I felt 
no longer any concern as to my future destiny as a member of that 
profession. But in the midst of the fourth year, by the will of 
the first president of the United States, with which the Senate 
was pleased to concur, I was selected for a station, not, perhaps, 
of more usefulness, but of greater consequence in the estimation 
of mankind, and sent from home on a mission to foreign parts." 

THE WEITER. 

While waiting for clients and continuing the active study 
of his profession, Mr. Adams was not a careless spectator 
of national affairs. He was an intense patriot. His travels 
abroad had made his patriotism broader, richer, more intelligent. 
He had been so thoroughly trained by his mother and the com- 
munity in which he was born, in the morals of life, which he 
had been taught to apply to political and national affairs, that 



206 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

it was difficult for him to separate his personal life from the life 
of the nation. About this time Thomas Paine's " Eights of 
Man" was published in this country, with the approval of Thomas 
Jefferson, Both Paine and Jefferson liad,been much in France, 
and much influenced by the radically democratic, or as we would 
say now, communistic views of the French leaders in their revo- 
lution. Mr. Adams saw clearly the '' political heresies" of Mr. 
Paine's pamphlet, and the mischief it was likely to do among 
the American people, who sympathized intensely with the 
French in their struggle for liberty, and exposed those heresies, 
and explained the difference between the French struggle and 
our own, in a series of articles which he published in the 
"Columbia Centinel," over the signature "Publicola." 

In April, 1793, Great Britain declared war against France. 
Such was the sympathy for France in this country, that multi- 
tudes were ready to make our republic a French ally against 
our old enemy. 

Mr. Adams published another series of letters, over the sig- 
nature of "Marcellus," in which he advocated with great ability 
the neutrality of the United States. He enlarged upon the 
necessity of our keeping clear of all foreign entanglements. 

A little later he published another series, over the signature 
of ''Columbus," severely criticising citizen Genet, whom France 
had sent here to arouse America in her behalf. These several 
articles were republished in pamphlets and other jDapers and 
widely read. They were published also, in England and held 
as among the ablest political writings from America. Washing- 
ton and his cabinet read them with great interest. They advo- 
cated in the main the doctrines Washington was trying to 
enforce in his administration. They did not suit either party, 
but were broader and wiser than either. They tended greatly 
to establish an American course of conduct, and fix many things 
on solid bases, which were then unsettled. They threw light, 
and much of it, into the gloom of that most doubtful period of 
our national history. 

In these papers there was not only shown great political and 
literary ability and moral character 6t a high order, but a clear 



JOHN Ql'INCY ADAMS. 207 

know'leclge of foreign countries, and of the language and 
etiquette of courts and diplomacy. All this pointed out to 
Washington'^ quick and most accurate judgment, tlie man he 
wanted for a foreign minister; and when he found it was his vice- 
president's son, who was yet but a young man, who had written 
so wisely, he did not hesitate on accunt of his few years, but 
appointed him minister to the Netherlands. His commission 
was given him July 11, 1794, the day he completed his twenty- 
seventh year. 

FOREIGIsr MINISTER. 

Mr. Adams left Boston in September, and reached London 
in October, where Messrs. Jay and Pinckney were negotiating a 
treaty between England and the United States. After fifteen 
days in London he sailed, October 30, for Holland. Holland 
almost at once fell into the hands of France, and his inter- 
course was about as much with the conquering as the conquered 
country. 

In October, 1795, he was directed by the secretary of state 
to repair to England, where he found he was appointed to ratify 
Jay's treaty with the British government. After fulfilling this 
mission he returned to Holland. 

Li August, 1796, he received the appointment of minister to 
Portugal, but his credentials did not reach him till his successor 
came, the next July. He at once repaired to London, to find that 
an appointment to the court of Berlin had superseded the other. 
While waiting for instructions, he fulfilled an engagement of 
marriage with Miss Louisa Catharine Johnson, daughter of 
Joshua Johnson, American consul at London. The marriage 
took place July 26, 1797. They proceeded to Berlin where Mr. 
Adams faithfully discharged the duties of his high office till 
1801, when they returned to the United States. 

BEGINS ANEW. 

Mr. Adams returned to Boston and to the bar, but without 
practice. When he left the bar, seven years before, his practice 
had Just become assured. But now, after seven years abroad, 



208 ' OUR PRESIDENTS. 

he must begin anew. He had now a family to support ; his 
finances had suffered by the failure of foreign bankers; but, 
nothing daunted, he again sought practice. He ajjplied him- 
self diligently to read up the new statutes and to acquaint him- 
self Avith the new conditions of law and society in his own 
country. He was but started in this study when the Boston 
district elected him to the Senate of Massuchesetts. 

In Massachusetts the federalists were in the majority. 
While he had been absent his father had been president, and 
lost his re-election by the division of his party and the rise of 
the democratic party, under Mr. Jefferson. Mr. Adams was 
not a politician by nature, and had had no part in the party 
differences of the time. His first public act as a senator was 
one of political justice and conciliation. He was elected by 
federalists, but when the governor's council was appointed he 
moved that a portion be appointed from the minority party, on 
the ground that the minority had rights that the majority were 
bound, in justice, to respect. 

In 1803 Mr. Adams was elected to the Senate of the United 
States by the Massachusetts legislature. He was now thirty-six 
years of age. The country, at this time, was fearfully embar- 
rassed, both by home distractions and foreign complications. 
Party spirit was almost a craze; one party affiliated with France, 
the other with England; the people had not learned to be stable 
citizens, nor what belonged to good citizenship; many of their 
leaders were distracted by foreign theories and Utopian schemes; 
war was appealing to the belligerent spirit of the young nation. 
The president, Mr. Jefferson, was dreaded and hated by many 
of the federalists as a French Jacobin. 

When these perils and embarrassments were thickening in 
and about the young republic, Mr. Adams took his seat in Con- 
gress, elected by federalists. The next year, 1804, Bonaparte 
became emperor of France. All Europe seemed falling under 
his sway. England alone withstood him. In 1807 England 
issued the " Orders in Council," which forbade all trade with 
France and her allies. Bonaparte replied with the " Milan 
Decree," which prohibited all trade with England and her 



JOHIS! QUINCY ADAMS. 309 

colonies. American commerce became a prey to both these 
belligerent nations. As a last resort, Mr. Jefferson determined 
on an embargo to save the remnant of American commerce. 
Massachusetts opposed the Embargo act; Mr. Adams supported 
Mr. Jefferson, for which he was roundly abused by his con- 
stituents. It was a characteristic of his whole life not to be a 
partisan. He was a national man and could not step to party 
orders. As a result, he was often charged with corrupt affilia- 
tion with the opposite party. He was ofton the best abused 
man in the whole country. For the several things which he did 
contrary to the will of his federalist constituents, a small 
majority elected another person to be his successor at the close 
of his term, so in March, 1808, he resigned his seat in the 
Senate. 

In 1805 he sought to have Congress levy a duty on the impor- 
tation of slaves, and thus began his strong public opposition to 
slavery, which ended only with his life. 

In 1804 he was urged to accept the presidency of Harvard 
university, which he declined, but, instead, accepted the chair 
of rhetoric and belles-lettres, which he filled to great acceptance. 

His lectures were very popular and attended by large crowds 
from Boston. They were afterward published in two volumes. 

MIN"ISTER TO RUSSIA. 

In March, 1809, Mr. Adams was appointed minister to Eus- 
sia. It was a critical and important time. The republic was 
drifting toward a storm with England ; and the president, Mr. 
Madison, was preparing for the worst. It had demanded the 
abrogation of the " Orders in Council" and the "Milan Decree." 
France complied ; but England hesitated, haggled, put off, and 
although she finally complied, she did not do it till the embroil- 
ment was on the verge of war, which Congress had declared 
before the news of England's compliance reached this country. 
It was important that a strong man had charge of our affairs 
with Eussia. Washington had predicted that the younger Adams 
would in due time be at the head of our foreign ministry. That 
time was now approaching. 
14 



210 01' II PR Ef^r DENTS. 

Mr. Adams was received Avitli marked rcsjiect at the eonrt 
of St. Petersburg. His familiarity with the French and German 
languages — the former the diplomatic language of Europe — his 
literary acquirements; his perfect knowledge of the political 
relations of the civilized world; his plain appearance and repub- 
lican simplicity of manners, in the midst of the gorgeous embas- 
sies of other nations, enabled him to make a striking and favorable 
impression on the Emperor Alexander and his court. The 
emperor, charmed by his varied qualities, admitted him to terms 
of personal intimacy, seldom granted to the most favored indi- 
viduals. 

Twenty-eight years before, when a boy of fourteen, he was 
there as Mr. Dana's private secretary; now he had returned in 
the prime of manhood, a diplomat of his nation. 

While there, the aged Eussian minister of the interior esti- 
mated the value of all the gifts he had received while in office ; 
and paid the sum into the national treasury. It was an act 
which Mr. Adams greatly honored. About this time, a Russian 
bookseller sent him an elegant copy of the scriptures. lie kept 
the copy, but returned the full price of it in money. He believed 
that public officials should be free from bias, and so should refuse 
all presents. 

While at 'St. Petersburg, Mr. Adams wrote a series of letters 
to a son at school in Massachussetts, on the bible and its teach- 
ings, which after his death were published in a volume. Through 
his life, he was a careful and devout student of the bible. Its 
precepts of wisdom and morality were always the guide of his 
life. He took great pleasure in studying the scriptures in the 
different languages he had learned ; and held them in profound 
respect. 

While Mr. Adams Avas at his court, the emperor proposed to 
mediate between England and the United States, to secure a 
cessation of hostilities. England refused the emperor's offer, 
but proposed to meet American commissioners at London or 
Gottenburg. Mr. Adams, and Messrs. Bayard, Clay, Eussell and 
Gallatin were appointed. In conducting the negotiations which 
followed, the American commissioners, with Mr. Adams at their 



JOHN QUIXCY ADAMS. 211 

head, displayed a knowledge of national rights and laws, a justice, 
firmness and magnanimity, which was profoundly respected by 
the nations of Europe ; and which led the Marquis of "Wellesley 
to say in the House of Lords that, " in his opinion, the American 
commissioners had shown the most astonishing superiority over 
the British, during the whole of the correspondence." 

After six months of negotiations, the treaty of peace was 
signed at Ghent on the twenty-fourth of December, 1814. 

The commissioners proceeded to London, where on the third 
of July, 1815, they signed a treaty of commerce with England. 
Thus was effected permanent relations of good will between 
these two great nations. 

MINISTER AT THE COURT OF ST. JAMES. 

Before going to London as a commissioner, Mr. Adams had 
been appointed resident minister at the court of St. James. He 
remained here till 1817, attending faithfully to the duties of his 
high position ; and reflecting great honor to his country, by his 
learning, wisdom and exalted character. 

SECRETARY OF STATE. 

On the fourth of March, 1817, James Monroe was inaugu- 
rated president of the L^nited States. He came into office when 
party spirit had for a long time run liigh. It was somewhat 
abated by the war, but was still in the way of a proper demon- 
stration of the principles on which the republic was founded. 
It was his great purpose to conciliate the parties and bring 
domestic peace to his country. He looked about for the most 
able and acceptable men for his cabinet officers, who were most 
pronounced for their non-partisan patriotism and their broad 
wisdom. He fixed on John Quincy Adams for his secretary of 
state — the man of all others who could give the most command- 
ing dignity to his administration, in the foreign world's estima- 
tion. 

As soon as Mr. Adams received his appointment, he closed 
his affairs in England and took passage for New York, where he 
landed August, 1817. A great public dinner was given him in 



212 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

Tammany hall, at which Governor Clinton, the mayor of the 
city, and some two hundred of the best-distinguished citizens 
gave expression to their profound regard for the great diplomat. 
He went immediately to Boston where a like reception awaited 
him, at which his aged father was a guest. 

The next month Mr. Adams removed to Washington and 
entered upon the duties of his office. 

During the eight years of Monroe's administration, Mr. 
Adams remained faithful to the duties of the secretary of state. 
He had entire charge of the foreign department of the govern- 
ment, and did much to establish, on just principles, the good 
relations our government has since maintained with countries 
abroad. He carried out the principles he had, in his early man- 
hood, formulated in his papers in the *' Columbian Centinel," 
and which so pleased Washington that he adopted them in his 
farewell address to the people of the United States. 

It was during Mr. Adams' term of office as secretary of state, 
that the Greek revolution broke out, in 1821. Greece had for a 
long time been subject to the Ottoman power, which was a cruel 
oppression. She resisted it and took up arms for independence. 
The American people sympathized deej)ly witii the Greeks. 
Meetings were held all over the country to express that sympa- 
thy. Resolutions were passed. The press was ablaze with Greek 
sympathy. Money, clothing, provisions, arms, were collected 
and sent to Greece. Men volunteered to go into her service. 
The Greek cause was immensely popular. The struggling 
Greeks aj^pealed to the United States for assistance; but Mr. 
Adams remained true to his principles, and in his correspond- 
ence with the Greek minister, said: "But while cheering with 
their best wishes the cause of the Greeks, the United States are 
forbidden, by the duties of their situation, from taking part in 
the war, to which their relation is that of neutrality. At peace 
themselves with all the world, their established policy and the 
obligations of the laws of nations, preclude them from becoming 
voluntary auxiliaries to a cause which would involve them in 
war." 

During his term of office the Seminole war came on and the 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 313 

difficulty with General Jackson in trespassing upon the Spanish 
territory and in hanging as spies two British subjects, which 
came near entangling us in a foreign war. Mr. Adams sup- 
ported Jackson and made such convincing arguments in favor of 
his position as to soothe the British cabinet. He made arrange- 
ments with Spain to purchase the Floridas, and so get possession 
of all the territory on the Gulf east of the Mississippi. This was 
a great gratification to Mr. Adams, as it was an object he had 
labored for with great anxiety. While Spain owned the Floridas 
we were in danger of trouble. During nearly all of Mr. Adam's 
term of office under Monroe, he was the subject of bitter political 
persecution. The old hatred of the federalists was not all dead. 
Some of those Avho hated his father hated him for his father's 
sake. He was a mighty man, and had come from abroad to hurt 
somebody's prospects for the presidency. Henry Clay had 
wanted to be secretary of state under Monroe, so he was made 
an enemy of Adams and the adminstration. His prospects for 
the presidency were hurt. Crawford, of Georgia, was ambitious 
and sorry to see Adams called home to be in his way. Clinton, 
of New York, was an aspirant for the presidency also, and he 
and his friends were annoyed by the diplomat's occupancy of the 
first place in Monroe's government. The press, in the interest 
of these and other aspirants for position, failed not to serve 
them in roundly abusing Mr. Adams. It called him "a 
royalist," "a friend of oligarchy," "a misanthrope; educated in 
contempt of his fellowmen," as '''unfit to be the minister of a 
free and virtuous people." Mr. Monroe was warned of him as 
" full of duplicity," as "an incubus on his prospects for the next 
presidency, and his popularity." In reply to all this and much 
more Mr. Adams went quietly on doing his duty. When asked 
by his friends to defend himself against these abuses, he replied 
that a faithful discharge of his duty to his country was his best 
defense. 

The introduction of Missouri into the Union was an event 
which occasioned one of the most thorough discussions which 
the question of slavery had ever had. It was really tlie begin- 
ning of the great struggle, which never ended till that institution 



214: OUE PRESIDEJSTTS. 

went down in a sea of blood. Missouri was the first state to be 
admitted which had grown up on the Louisiana purchase. 
Others were to follow. The south desired to carry slavery into 
all that territory and to carve it up into states devoted to its 
interests. The north wished to devote it to the freedom which' 
the republic was founded to promote. The south had sent its 
best men to Congress, as was its custom in the days of slavery, 
when there was little to employ its best talent, but politics. The 
north was busy in its multiplied business affairs. It was Mr. 
Adams' opinion that the southern side of Congress was the 
stronger and much more persistent. It was perfectly united, 
and had a great interest as it believed to contend for; while the 
north had many opinions and no interests in the question but 
those of patriotism and humanity. William Pinkney, James 
Barbour, Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, were then leaders in 
the debate on the southern side, while Rufus King, perhaps, was 
the only northern man then in Congress, equal to them in 
debate. Mr. Adams, as secretary of state, was simply a looker 
on in the public debate, except as he conversed frequently with 
the speakers on both sides. He recorded his conversations and 
opinions and the essential facts in the whole case. He was him- 
self intensely opposed to slavery, so much so, that he felt that 
the makers of the constitution had made a mistake in com- 
promising with it. He saw that it was imperiling and must 
ultimately destroy the union or be itself destroyed. The subject 
went into cabinet meetings. Mr. Calhoun did not think the 
Union would be dissolved, but if it was, the south would join 
with England and make their states military communities. Mr. 
Adams assured him that if the matter was pressed to a dissolution 
of the Union, it would be followed by universal emancipation; 
and a more remote result might be the extermination of the 
colored race in this country. Mr. Adams would defend the 
colored people against slavery on account of their weakness, 
''and if the dissolution of the Union must come," he said, ''let 
it come from no other cause but this. If slavery be the destined 
sword, in the hand of the destroying angel, which is to sever the 
ties of this Union, the same sword will cut assunder the bonds of 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 215 

slavery itself.-" It was his conviction that slavery could not 
long survive the dissolution of the union. He thought then 
was the time to settle the question of the extension of slavery, 
for he said: "Time will only show whether the contest may ever 
be renewed with equal advantage." And he Avrote: " Oh, if but 
one man could arise with a genius capable of comprehending, a 
heart capable of supporting, and an utterance capable of com- 
municating, those eternal truths which belong to the question, — 
to lay bare in all its nakedness that outrage upon the goodness 
of God, human slavery, — now is the time, and this is the 
occasion, upon which such a man would perform the duties of 
an angel upon earth." 

Again he wrote : " Slavery is the great and foul stain on the 
American Union, and it is a contemplation worthy of the most 
exalted soul, whether its total abolition is not j^racticable. This 
object is vast in its comjDass, awful in its jirospects, sublime and 
beautiful in its issue. A life devoted to it would be nobly spent 
and sacrificed." His soul revolted at human slavery as contain- 
ing every foul principle against which the American revolution 
was waged, and opposed to every good jorinciple of the American 
republic. It violated the rights of human nature and the polit- 
ical freedom our government was established to guarantee to its 
people. This discussion intensified his abhorrence of slavery and 
the bitter fruits it bore in the slaveholders themselves, and did 
much to give a strong anti-slavery tone to the rest of his life. 

The debate resiilted in a compromise, known ever since as the 
"Missouri Compromise," which admitted Missouri as a slave state, 
but prohibited slavery in the remaining portion of the Louisiana 
purchase north of latitude thirty-six degrees and thirty .minutes. 

Mr. Monroe's administration was so wisely conducted that it 
resulted in great prosperity to the country. The war was over 
and brought its good results to our commerce and the increased 
confidence of foreign nations ; agriculture developed rapidly ; 
manufactures increased and were protected and fostered by the 
government ; political animosities and jealousies subsided, and 
the people began to feel that their government was founded to 
be permanent. Internal improvements were begun and the 



216 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

people began to accept the lessons of experience and the wisdom 
of righteousness as worth more than ideal theories. In all these 
good attainments of Mr, Monroe's administration, Mr. Adams is 
to be credited with no small share of honor. He was the 
diplomat ; his the great philosophic mind which did much to 
shape and give tone to the measures and spirit of the govern- 
ment. Adams was the thinker, Monroe was the practical execu- 
tive of the administration. They complemented each other and 
did more and better together than either could have done without 
the other. The "era of good feeling" which they secured was 
first realized by the president and secretary in the unity and 
harmony of their deliberations. During Mr. Adams' secretary- 
ship, the affairs of our government were put upon a better foot- 
ing than they ever had been before. 

THE PRESIDENT. 

On the fourth of March, 1825, Mr. Adams was inaugurated 
sixth president of the United States, There was no election by 
the people on account of the many candidates, "Of two hun- 
dred and sixty-one electoral votes. General Jackson received 
ninety-nine, Mr, Adams eighty-four, Mr. Crawford forty-one, 
and Mr, Clay thirty-seven." 

By the constitution the election was thrown into the House 
of Eepresentatives, in which Mr, Adams received a majority of 
all the votes and was elected, John C, Calhoun was nearly 
unanimously elected vice-president, 

Mr. Monroe's administration, by various causes, had nearly 
silenced the federal party, so that the several candidates for the 
presidency were essentially of the same party. The differences 
were chiefly local and sectional. They inaugurated a season of 
" stormy strife in which personal qualities more than political 
principles, carried on bitter controversies. 

Andrew Jackson, one of the defeated candidates, claimed at 
once that he was defeated by a bargain between Adams and 
Clay, the outward evidence of which was that Clay was made 
secretary of state. Jackson took his state, Tennessee, with him 
in his denunciation of Adams and Clay, and opposition to their 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 217 

administration. That state took "time by the forelock," and 
at once nominated Jackson for the next president. He resigned 
his seat in the United States Senate to conduct his campaign for 
the next election. This raised at once personal animosities, 
ambitions and partisans, which easily disturbed the peaceful 
administration of the government. Jackson was not a man to 
soften any personal prejudice, or yield any personal ambitions; 
Adams was not a man to yield any conscientious conviction or 
swerve from any duty. Two strong men could not well be 
more unlike in character, education and purpose in life. One 
was educated, broad, generous, high-minded; the other was 
natural, concentrated, passionate, generous to his friends and 
vindictive to his supposed enemies. They agreed in party 
affiliation, but Jackson's defeat put him upon his military spirit, 
and he marshalled his forces for a battle. 

Mr. Adams was the first man made president, who had no 
personal part in the revolution. Yet he was born of its spirit 
and true to its principles. No man ever understood better its 
fundamental principles, or gave them a heartier devotion, or a 
grander illustration in his life. No man ever threw upon them 
a clearer light from a great intellect and a noble heart. 

Mr. Adams was the second president from the northern 
states, his father being the first. The four others were from 
Virginia. Three southern candidates ran against him and no 
northern one. 

The removing and appointing power of the president is very 
great; yet Mr. Adams "made but two removals, both from 
unquestionable causes; and in his new appointments, he was 
scrupulous in selecting candidates whose talents were adapted to 
the public service." He appointed some federalists to office, 
but was severely censured by his southern democratic friends for 
it. It was his intention invariably to make ability and integrity 
the qualifications for office. 

In his first message, Mr. Adams made several important 
recommendations : " The maturing into a permanent and reg- 
ular system the application of all the superfluous revenues of the 
ynion to internal improvement;" "the establishment of a uni- 



218 OUR PEESIDENTS. 

form standard of weights and measures;^' ''the establishment 
of a naval school of instruction for the formation of scientific 
and accomplished officers;^' "the establishment of a national 
university/' which had been recommended by Washington. 

In all these recommendations, he was looking to the per- 
manence, progress and character of the nation. He was not 
simply playing president for the glory of it^ he was nation build- 
ing He was a national man; had studied national affairs in 
this country and Europe, in history and in the nature of men, 
all his life, and now ripened, conscientious and large-hearted, 
he Avas applying his knowledge, patriotism and humanity^ to 
the conduct and development of the national character and 
resources. He was too clear-seeing, downright and genuine to be 
understood by the average politicians and people of his day, 
unless they were those who came into daily intercourse with 
him. He would not truckle ; he would not conciliate to the 
loss of self-respect ; he would not yield to partisan wrong ; so 
he was misunderstood, maligned, abused, by multitudes in high 
jolaces and low, incapable of aiDpreciating his disinterested, 
manly and dignified character. In that early day he wanted to 
protect and encourage American manufactures ; wanted a sys- 
tem of internal improvements ; wanted a civil service based on 
merit ; a uniform system of weights and measures, a subject 
which he had deeply studied, a written report of which had 
gained him great credit in Europe ; wanted a naval academy 
and a national university, all of which are level with the best 
thought of our time. On these things, and many more, he 
was simply fifty years in advance of his age. Indeed, his was 
the colossal mind of his time, enriched beyond any of his coun- 
trymen in political learning, and fired with a noble patriotism. 

During Mr. Adams' administration, the Marquis de La- 
fayette visited the United States for the last time. Congress 
desired to send a shij) for him, but he preferred to come in a 
less formal way. He arrived in New York on the fifteenth of 
August, 1824. His recej^tion in New York was sublime and 
brilliant in the extreme. He proceeded from New York on a 
tour through the United States, which was everywhere a pageant 



JOH]Sr QUINCY ADAMS. 219 

and an ovation. The people gathered en masse from hamlet, 
village and city to welcome and honor him. Every possible 
form of demonstration was made to assure him of the love of the 
American people for their nation's benefactor and guest. 

On the seventeenth of June, 1825,, the anniversary of the 
battle of Bunker Hill, he assisted in laying the corner stone of 
the Bunker Hill monument, which now stands a grand granite 
story-teller of that great event. 

On the seventh of September, 1825, he took his leave of a 
grateful people, in the president's house at Washington, in the 
midst of the officers of the government, civil and military. 
President Adams addressed him in golden words which will 
never die, and he responded in a tender, felicitous and impres- 
sive farewell, which unborn generations will read with tearful 
eyes. He then threw himself into the arms of the president 
and gave free vent to sobs and tears, the whole assembly Joining 
with him. As he left the president he said, in broken accents, 
'^God bless you," and then reached out his hands for the 
embraces of the assembly, and for a little while the " hero was 
lost in the father and friend." 

In a little while the boat was ready that was to convey him 
down the river to the Brandywine, which frigate Congress had 
provided to take him home. 

When the boat reached Mount Vernon, Lafayette went in 
silence to the tomb of Washington. "All hearts beat in unison 
with the veteran's bosom as he looked for the last time on the 
sepulcher which contained the ashes of the first of men. He 
spoke not, but ajDpeared absorbed in the mighty recollections 
which the place and the occasion insj)ired." 

After this he returned to the boat, which proceeded to the 
Brandywine, where the secretaries and escorts took leave of him, 
and he went on board and departed from the country he had 
loved and had offered his life to found and make free. 

AVhile Mr. Adams was president, July 4, 182G, his father, 
John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson, gave up this life, in the 
midst of the festivities of the nation's jubilee. 

His mother had died in 1818. Mr. Adams was deeply moved 



220 OUR PRESIDEIfTS. 

by these events. He had a profound regard for his great and 
honored parents. 

Mr. Adams' administration closed as it began and was car- 
ried through, with the utmost purity, dignity and political 
wisdom. It was devoted to a pure public service and a zealous 
and patriotic development of the national resources and char- 
acter. From the beginning it was opposed by unscrupulous, 
vindictive and partisan men and measures, which, in the light 
of after developments, only set forth his worth in a richer light. 
By falsity, malice and unscrupulous personal ambition, the peo- 
ple were deceived in relation to him and the purity and wisdom 
of his administration, and so he was remanded to the quiet of 
Quincy at the close of his one term of service as president. 
Now it is known to all unbiased students of history that our 
country has had no wiser or purer administration than that of 
John Quincy Adams. 

REPRESElfTATIVE IN" CON"GRESS. 

Mr. Adams remained in retirement only about a year. In 
the autumn of 1830, it began to be talked that the peojile of 
Plymouth county would like to have the ex-president represent 
them in Congress. Impossible, thought some men, who stood 
more on dignity than patriotic service. Would he accept an 
election to the House of Eepresentatives? asked a great many. 
Some thought it would be improper ; some thought it would be 
degrading; some thought it would be a noble thing to do. So 
was the public mind divided. But in due time he received the 
nomination, and said in a letter of response: "I am not aware 
of any sound principle which would justify me in withholding 
my services from my fellow citizens.^' So he was elected, and 
in December, 1831, took his seat in the lower House of Congress. 
And his reputation did not suffer by this patriotic acceptance of 
a post of heavy labor, but was immeasurably advanced by it. 
He exhibited a fund of knowledge, so vast and profound ; a 
familiarity so perfect with nearly every topic which claimed the 
attention of Congress; he could bring forth from his well-replen- 
ished store of memory so vast an array of facts, shedding light 



JOHN QUIlSrCY ADAMS. 221 

Upon subjects deeply obscured to others ; displayed such readi- 
ness and power in debate, pouring out streams of purest elo- 
quence, or launching forth the most scathing denunciations, 
when he deemed them called for — that his most bitter opposers, 
while trembling before his sarcasm, and dreading his assaults, 
could not but grant him the meed of their highest admiration. 
Well did he deserve the title conferred upon him, by general con- 
sent, of ''The Old Man Eloquent." 

He was at once made chairman of the committee of manu- 
factures; then a most important committee, as it involved the 
question of tariff, which separated the north and south. The 
northern manufacturers wanted their goods protected against a 
ruinous competition, while the southern planters wanted free 
trade. The difference was so great, and the discussion of it so vio- 
lent, that some feared it would break up the Union, Mr. Adams on 
this committee urged moderation upon both sides; and with his 
profound knowledge of the whole subject, and all the interests 
involved, he was able to keep a living harmony between them, 
by adjusting the tariff to the diverse conditions of the whole 
country. 

He was able to be the great pacificator on this vexed subject. 

In 1835, the people of Texas, then a province of Mexico, 
took up arms against the Mexican government. In essence, it 
was a rebellion. The inhabitants of Texas were, for the most 
part, emigrants from the south and southwestern states of our 
Union, and some of them emigrants for their country's good. 
Mexico had abolished slavery, so that Texas was free territory. 
These emigrants from the southern part of the Union, desired 
to reestablish slavery in Texas. It was easy to find an occasion 
for war against, their adopted country, for this purpose. The 
plan was to get up a war, declare independence, get help from 
the United States to maintain it ; annex to the United States, 
and so become a slave country again. And the plan carried in 
every particular. 

General Jackson, president at that time, sent troops to the 
border, ostensibly to see that the Indians did not assist the Mex- 
icans. A call was made on Congress for a million of dollars to 



222 OUR PIiESlDEN"TS. 

carry on the military operations for keeping the Indians from 
aiding the Mexicans. 

Mr. Adams, in a speech made in Congress, on this call for 
money, in May, 1836, unriddled this whole plan ; and in another 
speech pointed out the course of the administration toward 
Mexico, and its desire to get a large slice of her territory, enough 
for several new slave states. 

Charge was made against Mr, Adams, that in negotiating for 
the Floridas he had ceded the whole of Texas to Mexico, and 
General Jackson, the president, was referred to as authority for 
the statement. Mr. Adams assured Congress, that when that 
negotiation was made, he laid it before General Jackson and it 
received his approval. Jackson denied this ; but Mr. Adams 
produced his diary, where the facts and dates were recorded as 
he had stated. 

This movement to enlarge the slave territory, aroused the 
people of the north to the aggressive and multiplying and over- 
bearing character of slavery ; and they at once began to discuss 
it, and consider the subject of its restraint. Petitions began to 
be sent to Congress for the abolition of slavery and the slave 
trade in the District of Columbia and the territories. These 
petitions were usually sent to Mr. Adams and he presented them. 
They multiplied, and he still presented them. He respected 
the people's right of petition, and felt it his duty to give their 
respectful petitions a respectful presentation. Whatever the 
subject petitioned for, he presented the petition. He did it 
chiefly to maintain the right of petition to a free people. It 
often caused fearful and disgraceful scenes in the House of Eep- 
resentatives, brought upon him storms of abuse ; yet, with 
unflinching moral purpose and courage, he continued, through 
several terms to present the petitions, sometimes two hundred a 
day, and the House continued to lay them on the table. By 
resolutions, votes, intimidations, threats of assassination and 
expulsion, and the most insulting abuse, he was resisted. The 
House was often in anarchy, but with unwavering firmness, 
adroitly watching his opportunity to speak for the right of 
petition, he presented petitions, till at last he won a triumphant 



JOHN QUIN-CY ADAMS. 223 

victory. Long is tlie history of that memorable contest, but 
there is room here for only this reference to it. 

In December, 1835, President Jackson sent to Congress a 
message relative to a bequest of four hundred thousand dollars, 
from James Smithson, of London, to the United States, for the 
purpose of establishing at Washington an institution "for the 
increase and diffusion of knowledge among men,^' and referred 
the subject to Congress for its consideration. The message was 
referred to a committee of which Mr. Adams was made chair- 
man. He entered into the acceptance and use of this gift with 
great spirit. He gave the whole strength of his mind and heart 
to carrying the designs of Mr, Smithson into effect. Mr. 
Adams made a report to Congress on the subject in which he 
set forth the nobleness of the purpose of the donor, the breadth 
and grandeur of the results to mankind of that purjDOse faith- 
fully and wisely carried out; the honor thus conferred upon our 
country, and something of the history of the Smithson family as 
among the most honored in the British kingdom. He con- 
cluded his report by offering a bill authorizing the president to 
receive and take measures t^o found The Smithsonian Institute. 
Few public acts of Mr. Adams gave him more pleasure. AVlien 
the fund was received he was more instrumental than any other 
man in founding the great institution which is such an honor 
and aid to our country and mankind. In his addresses on this 
subject he displayed a great amount of scientific and historical 
learning. Probably no other public man in the country so 
valued solid learning or so signally illustrated its effects in his 
own life. 

In the latter part of his life, when he was ripe in years as he 
was in learning and virtue, he gave in many j)arts of the country 
and on many important occasions, addresses, orations, speeches, 
which abound in wisdom, learning, patriotism and high moral 
sentiment. There was hardly any subject of great importance 
that he did not speak ui3on in and out of Congress. The sub- 
jects of slavery, internal improvements, the advancement of the 
country, dueling, intemperance, corruption in office and in poli- 
tics, were constantly receiving his most vigorous attention. ' He 



224 OtJR PRESlDEifTg. 

often arraigned his country for its injustice and cruelty to the 
Negro and the Indian. On every possible occasion he j)leaded 
for justice in their behalf, and righteous dealing as the law 
for a nation as for an individual. 

His discussion in Congress of the subject of dueling in the 
presence of duelers, illustrates the courage and character of the 
grand old man who never cowered in human presence or was 
turned from duty by human insolence or power. 

He was often pained and mortified by the sectionalism, 
venality and brutality of members of Congress and higher officers 
of government, and never hesitated in his place to censure those 
whose conduct disgraced his country. He was such a living 
encyclopaedia of learning, history, law, moral principle and 
religious devotion, that he was a standing rebuke to the selfish, 
sectional and party spirit that controlled many of the officials 
and politicians about him. He was profoundly anxious lest these 
evil spirits should degenerate and destroy his country which 
to him was the hope of the world. He had lived through its 
whole existence, been honored by all its presidents, held high 
offices under them all, been president himself; had a history of 
every important transaction and of the attitude and conduct of 
every leading individual connected with the government from 
the beginning; had a record also of the action and politics of 
all foreign governments and our relations to them; of the prog- 
ress of our legislation, of the tariff, internal improvements, the 
development of our manufactures, the extension of our terri- 
tory; of the extension of slavery and the artifices by which it 
had been accomplished; in a word he had a record of our 
national life in his and his father's diary and his accurate and 
ca]Dacious memory supplied all the details; so that he was 
authority — the nation in himself, all the later years of his life; 
the patriarch of America, having been instrumental in develop- 
ing and preserving this grand national estate. 

He had great interest in the temperance cause, which in his 
later years was commanding the attention of his countrymen. 
He understood its necessity and usefulness, and gave it the 
powerful support of his voice and example. 



JOHJSf QUINCY ADAMS. • 225 

Througli his whole life Mr. Adams was an intense worker; 
he studied everything he took hold of to the bottom; always 
made sure that he was right before speaking; always knew his 
authority; took infinite pains to know the whole of every 
subject that was important to the well being of his country. He 
was usually the first man in his seat every morning in the House, 
and the last man to leave at night. He gave an absorbing 
interest to the business in hand; and was very much of the time 
in resolute opposition to the legislation of Congress, as it was 
through his whole congressional career, in the interest of slavery 
and its 'extension. That interest removed him from the 
presidential chair and controlled the administrations of Jackson, 
Van Buren, and Tyler — controlled the government from his 
removal from the presidency to the day of his death. 

Mr. Adams was a man of great physical vigor, which 
sustained him in active health through the intense labors of his 
long, life. He was an early riser, an absteminous liver, temperate, 
prudent, regular in all his habits ; an excellent walker, often 
walking a number of miles before breakfast; a good swimmer; 
fond of good company; an excellent talker; a lover of home; 
simple and republican in dress and manners; plain, honest, 
genuine; too fair and square, and positive to be popular; yet so 
thorough, and manly and grand as to command almost universal 
respect. He was a genuine Puritan, deeply and consistently 
religious; a great student of the bible, a Unitarian in theology, 
yet in hearty sympathy with all christian people. He was a 
reformer — a maker anew of lifers ways, so vigorous and 
persistent as to seem to be an iconoclast. In his opposition to 
wrong he used solid shot — words that wounded, that smelt of 
passion and power. He was no milk-and-water man, was mighty 
in fire and storm — a granite tower in the whirlwind defying its 
assaults. All in all, he was one of America's grandest products, 
honored at last in all the world as one of its greatest and best 
men. On the twentieth of November, 1846, he was stricken 
with paralysis at his son's house in Boston. This confined him 
for several weeks. But at the opening of Congress he returned 
to his post, and was prompt and active as he had always been, 
15 



226 



OUR PRESIDENTS, 



until the twenty-first of February, 1848, at half -past one o'clock 
in the afternoon, he was stricken again. He was caught and 
held from falling by members near him. He was unconscious, 
till three o'clock, when consciousness returned and he said, 
faintly: " This is the end of earth, i am content." These were 
his last words. He lived until seven o'clock in the evening of 
the twenty-third, when the spirit of John Quincy Adams left 
the scenes of earth for those in the immortal realm of its father, 
in the eighty-first year of its age. Thus closed a life which will 
ever be worthy of the profoundest study and emulation of man- 
kind. 




JOHN" QUINCr ADAMS. 227 



IhE i.RAVE OF lOHN ©UINCY ^DAMS. 

In the cryjjt in that portion of Braintree, Massachusetts, 
now known as Quincy, with the immortal remains of John 
Adams, his father, rest the forms of John Quincy Adams and 
his wife, Louisa Catharine. The tomb is surmounted by a bust, 
beneath which are the words, "AUeri Sceculo," divided by an 
acorn and two oak leaves. Over the tablet is " Thy Kingdom 
Come." As on the tablet of John Adams, the first column is 
devoted to the president and the other to his wife. The 
inscription reads as follows ; 

Near this place reposes all that could die of 

Son of John and Abigail (Smith) Adams, 
Sixth President of the United States. 

Born 11 of July, 1767, Amidst the Storms of Civil Commotion, 

He Nursed the Vigor which Inspires a Christian 

For more than half a Century. 

Whenever His Covmtry Called for His Labors, 

In either Hemisphere or in any Capacity, 

He Never Spared them in Her Cause. 

On the Twenty-fourth of December, 1814, 

He signed the Second Treaty with Great Britain, which Restored 

Peace within her Borders. 

On the Twenty-third of February, 1848, he closed sixteen 
years of eloquent defense of the lessons of his youth by 
dying at his post in her great National Council. 

A Son Worthy of His Father, ' 
A Citizen shedding Glory on His Country, 
A Scholar Ambitious to Advance Mankind, 
This Christian sought to Walk Humbly in the Sight of God. 



228 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

The second column on this tablet records the important 
facts in the life of his " Partner for fifty years": 

Living tlirough Many Vicissitudes 

And under Many Responsibilities as a 

Daughter, Wife and Mother, she Proved Equal to All. 

Dying, 

She Left to Her Family and Her Sex the Blessed Remembrance of 

"A Woman that Feareth the Lord." 

Under the parallel column is this verse : 

"One sovreth and another reapeth. I sent you to reap that 
whereon ye bestowed no labor. Other men labored, and ye 
are entered into their labor." 

The church in which the remains were deposited in 1848 is a 
massive structure^ the front being supported by heavy columns, 
with a graceful cupola and dome above it. It is embowered in 
immense elm and chestnut trees, near the old Adams home- 
stead, and is now owned and used by the Unitarian congregation 
of Quincy, with which the Adamses were associated. 




r-"-*"- ^ — fe Y(^ 9 / \ V \DY& — -^°'*-— 




LNiRAVED EX. PR EE SSL.- FOK WEAVtRSLVES AND GBA\»ES I 



I II i i i i i I i i i i it I I a i i i i it a i t a it i ; i i a a i i a m i i i i ; ■ 



CHAPTER VIII. 




- ANDREW JAOKSOH". 

Seventh President op the United States. 

'N turning from tlie great men who have thus far occu- 
pied the executive chair of the United States, to those 
who immediately follow, one feels that he has been 
among the gods, and is now going down to dwell among 
perverse and passion-scarred men. The descent is so sudden, 
and the change is so marked with violence and paltriness 
that it is like going into another climate or civilization. 
The first six presidents were men of strength, breadth, nobility of 
character, and life — great products of a great era. They differed 
much from each other, but each was great and noble in his way, 
a tower of strength to the republic, a royal illustration of its 
principles, a magnificent specimen of manhood. Americans 
have never had to apologize for their weaknesses, while the 
world has been quick to do them honor, and the greatest of 
every country and age since their time have accepted them as 
peers in the highest realm of thought and action. As the ages 
move away, their renown will grow, and the study of their 
exalted characters and lives will quicken the generations of men 
in what is most manly and meritorious. It was theirs to act 
conspicuous parts in founding the republic, and conducting its 
affairs in the first forty years of its existence. It is largely the 
product of their wisdom and energy, and will forever stand the 
inonument of their greatness of mind and worth of character. 

229 



230 OUR PRESIDENTS. 



ANDREW JACKSON", SENIOR. 

Andrew Jackson, Sr., and his wife, were of Scotch-Irish 
descent. Their ancestors had gone from Scotland to the north 
of Irehmd, many years before their time. They were poor, and 
had suffered much from the British misgovernment of always 
oppressed and unhappy Ireland. They had little love for Eng- 
land, she had so dealt with their adopted country with an iron 
hand. To get away from her immediate oppression, into an 
American colony where land was plenty and cheap; where fish 
and game could be had for the taking; where sunshine and fuel 
were abundant, and frost and snow troubled not, became an 
object of their desire. Gathering up their scanty store of goods 
and money, they set sail for Charleston, South Carolina. This 
was in 1765, just about the time that the colonies began to feel 
the heavy hand of British oppression, hindering their natural 
development. 

A seaport town was not the place for a farmer to settle, so 
Mr. Jackson's face was soon set toward the country. He fixed 
on the Waxhaw settlement, on the creek of that name — a branch 
of the Catawba river — one hundred and sixty-five miles north- 
west from Charleston, near the line of the two Carolinas. The 
creek and settlement took their name from a tribe of Indians 
which had formerly occupied that vicinity. Here the Jackson's 
planted their hearthstone. They had two young sons, Hugh 
and Robert. Here they erected their cabin and began life in the 
American wilderness. The next year, after one crop had been 
raised, Mr. Jackson died. The desolate widow, in this wild 
waste of woods, soon became the mother of a third son, which 
she named for his father, Andrew. He was born March 15, 
1767. When the mother had laid the form of her husband in 
the grave, she went immediately to her sister and husband, Mr. 
McKinney, a few miles away in North Carolina. There was born 
the seventh president of the United States. To all human 
api^earance nothing was more improbable than that this babe of 
sorrow, poverty and extreme humility, would ever rise to great- 
ness and honor among men. All that could be said of his 



ANDKEW JACKSON. 231 

parents was, that they were good, well-meaning people. They 
had come to America to better their humble condition. They 
were of the Presbyterian faith, and the sorrowful but trusting 
mother conceived the idea that, if possible, this babe of her sor- 
row and her faith should be educated for the ministry. Even 
this would have seemed impossible to everybody but a mother. 
With this thought actuating her, she trained his young mind to 
duty, and religious faith and life. And although she did not 
see her desire accomplished in him, she made good the saying 
that widow's sons often rise to distinction. Events Avere soon 
to transpire to give his career a different course. 

The improbable thing that this child of most unpropitious 
birth should become distinguished among great men, would 
hardly have been possible any where but in America, and in this 
free republic. Such is the fruitage of republican institutions. 

JACKSON'S BOYHOOD. 

Three weeks after Andrew's birth, Mrs. Jackson went to the 
home of another sister and her husband, Mr. and Mrs. Craw- 
ford, where she did the work of the family for ten years, her 
sister being an invalid. The eldest boy was left at Mr. McKin- 
ney's. Andrew gained here in a rude school the elements of an 
education. It was with great difficulty that he learned to spell; 
he never became accomplished in that art so difficult to some. 
He did better at retiding and writing. But he did not take 
kindly to his books. He was frolicsome, fond of athletic sports, 
and grew up to be rough and coarse, and after his mother's 
death, very jn'ofane. ''He was a rude, turbulent boy;" imjieri- 
ous, headstrong, brave, but yet generous. In person and char- 
acter he presented little that was attractive or hopeful. He was 
tall and ungainly; coarse in features, lank in form; his hair 
coarse, face freckled and hard, manners rough and independent, 
''very irascible to his equals and superiors," but generous to the 
younger and weaker. 

One biographer says ne went to an academy kejit in the old 
Waxhaw meeting-house, by a Mr. Humphreys, where he studied 



232 OUR PKESIDEKTS. 

the classics and mathematics and made considerable j^rogress in 
that education which his mother wished him to have. 

When seven years old the Continental Congress had met; 
when eight, the battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill were 
fought; when nine, the Declaration of Independence was signed. 
Of course these great events were talked over in the Waxhaw 
settlement and in the school where Andrew was studying. 
These distant communities were stirred by these things. South 
Carolina and Virginia caught the fire of the times very early. 
The boys grew warlike as well as the men. 

When Andrew was thirteen years old, the war came to his 
wilderness home. 

On the twenty-ninth of May, 1780, Colonel Buford, who had 
a small American force at Waxhaw, was attacked by Colonel 
Tarleton, and had one hundred and fifteen of his men killed and 
one hundred and fifty wounded. It was a fearful loss. The 
meeting-house was converted into a hospital. Andrew saw this 
battle and its terrible works in the dead and suffering men 
about him. This was his first sight of war. He and his brother 
Eobert and his mother, ministered to the suffering militia. His 
brother Hugh, now eighteen, had gone with a detachment of 
men to meet and head off Tarleton, and died of heat and 
exhaustion at the battle of Stono. 

In the following August, a portion of Cornwallis' army 
rushed upon Waxhaw, and the inhabitants fled, and among them 
Mrs. Jackson and her two boys. * 

The next year the family returned to desolated Waxhaw. 
Andrew was now fourteen, tall, slender and weak from his rapid 
growth. His passionate nature was aroused to avenge his 
brother's death and the slaughter of his neighbors. 

The strife between the whigs and tories was a state of war. 
A band of tories made a midnight attack upon the house of a 
whig. Andrew Jackson was there as one of the guards. A 
little battle ensued in which the tories were repulsed. Two of 
Jackson's associates were killed by his side. He showed the 
warrior in him at that early age. 

Not far from this time he was m the battle of Hanoinff 



AXDKEW JACKbUX. 233 

Rock. It was probably before he and his brother Robert had 
both enlisted. Soon after, when a comi)any of some forty of 
the Waxhaw patriots were making their headquarters in the 
meeting-house, they were deceived by a band of tories who led 
behind them a company of British soldiers. The tories came as 
friends, and by this strategem the patriots were taken by sur- 
prise. The two Jackson boys were in the company surprised, 
but with several others esca])ed to the woods. The next day, 
however, while in at a neighbor's house eating a hasty meal, 
they were broken in ui)on by a party of British dragoons, and 
taken prisoners. 

After being put under guard, Andrew was imperiously 
ordered by a British officer to clean his boots. "I am a prisoner 
of war, and not your servant," replied the dauntless boy. The 
brutal officer drew his sword and aimed a desperate blow at the 
head of the young soldier. lie threw ujd his hand and parried 
the blow in part, yet he received two fearful cuts, one in his 
hand and one on his head. The mark of the wound in the 
hand he carried through life. The officer then made the same 
re(juest of Robert, and met with a similar refusal, and gave him 
a like blow which so wounded him as to cause his death not long 
after. 

The wounded boys, with the rest of the prisoners, were 
marched off to Camden, South Carolina. They were hurried 
through without food or drink, a distance of forty miles ; 
thrown into a contracted enclosure without beds, medical 
attendance, or any means of dressing their wounds. They were 
shortly fed and badly treated. In a few days the virulent small- 
pox broke out. The dying and the dead were all together. Mrs. 
Jackson, hearing of the suffering of her boys, hastened to their 
relief. She succeeded in detaining the release of her sons by an 
exchange of prisoners. Obtaining two horses, she put Robert, 
who could scarcely stand, upon one ; she rode the other, and 
Andrew, half -famished, bare-headed, bare-footed, and in rags, 
walked in pain and toil the weary forty miles, suffering the first 
stages of the small-pox all the way. A heavy rain, which they 
could not avoid, impeded and endangered them all the more. 



23,4 OUK PRESIDENTS. 

At length the home was reached, and the boys, raging sick of 
small-pox, nnder the weary mother's care. Eobert died in two 
days, and Andrew was soon wild in delirium. After a long 
struggle with the loathsome disease, he recovered. . 

As soon as she could leave him, she hastened to Charleston 
to care for the sick prisoners there, among whom were her sis- 
ter's sons, but in her mission of mercy was attacked with a 
severe sickness, died, and was buried so obscurely that her grave 
has never been found. 

Thus in the fifteenth year of his age Andrew was left alone 
in the world, with his mother and two brothers taken from him 
by the brutal barbarity of the British soldiery. Is it any 
wonder that a nature like his became ferocious and furious Avhen 
aroused ? Is it any wonder that such a schooling carried its 
hard lessons deep into his strong and passionate nature ? Bar- 
barous war, thy cruelties belong to demons rather than men ! 

JACKSOISr THE YOUTH. 

Andrew Jackson was now a mere youth, overgrown, not 
firm in health, coarse, wild, reckless. About this time he 
attempted to learn the saddler's trade, and worked at it for six 
months, but he was better at his games, sports and reckless 
ways than at his work, and gave it up. 

While the British occupied Charleston, many of the inhabi- 
tants found homes in country places, and some of them in the 
Waxhaw settlement. Among these were some youth that 
became the associates of young Jackson, and of whom he learned 
city ways of dissipation and gambling. When they returned 
to their homes he went with them, riding his fine horse, which 
he had got of the little property left him. He soon ran up a 
bill at the tavern; the city attractions used up all his money. 
Strolling, one evening, into a gambling place, he was challenged 
to stake his horse against two hundred dollars. He accepted 
the challenge and won in the game. Putting his money in his 
pocket and resisting further invitations to play, with the iron 
will which always constituted such a strong element of his 
character, he bade his companions good evening and went to 



ANDREW JACKSON. 235 

his room and bed. He saw his way out of the poverty and dis- 
grace which would soon be upon him if he staid in the city, and 
so, early in the morning, he paid his bill, mounted his horse 
and rode toward AVaxhaw. 

On his return he set up for a schoolmaster. In a log school- 
house, with a few children, he tried the art of imparting 
knowledge to the young mind. But his tastes were more with 
his wild companions than with his scholars, and this was given 
up for the study of law. Like many another, he made teaching 
the stepping stone to a profession; but in his case it Avas a thin 
stone. He gathered up Avhat means he had, mounted his horse, 
and went to Salisbury, North Carolina, a distance of seventy- 
five miles, and entered the law office of a Mr. McCay. 

At eighteen years old he was better skilled in the ways of his 
hard, rough companions than in anything else. He remained 
two years in this office, studying some, bux frolicking more. One 
biographer says of him : "He was the most roaring, rollicking, 
game-cocking, horse-racing, card-playing, mischievous fellow 
that ever lived m Salisbury." 

At twenty years old, six feet and one inch in his stockings, 
slender, graceful in his movements and manners, when he chose 
to be, fond of horses, riding, rough adventures, developing some 
manly and dignified qualities in the midst of, generally, pro- 
fane and coarse ways. 

He was now a lawyer, but without books, office or clients. 
There seemed to be no business for him where he had studied; so he 
rode to Martinsville, North Carolina, where he spent a year as a 
clerk in a store, waiting for some opening in the line of his 
profession. 

North Carolina, at that time, extended west to the Missis- 
sippi river. It was a long, wild tract of country west of the 
mountains, ravaged by Indians, who had become hostile and 
bitter toward the whites. It is now the State of Tennessee. 
North Carolina afterward ceded it to Congress, and Congress at 
length made it into a state. 

At the time Jackson was at Martinsville, there was a settle- 
ment a little west of the mountains, called Jonesborough; and 



230 OUli PRESIDENTS. 

five hundred miles west of the summit of the monntaius was 
another, called Nashville. All else was wilderness and the home 
of Indians and wild beasts. 

Andrew Jackson, when twenty-one years old, was appointed 
public prosecutor for the district of Nashville. It was an office 
without honor, with but little pay, and hazardous in the extreme. 
Few men that had anything else to do would accept it. It was 
Jackson's only opportunity. 

At that time there was gathering at Morgantown, the frontier 
settlement of North Carolina, a company of emigrants for the 
wild country of the west. Jackson joined this company. They 
were mounted on horseback, and carried all their goods and 
luggage on pack horses. They followed an Indian trail in a 
long cavalcade, camping at night in the open air, stationing 
pickets about to give warning of the approach of Indians. A 
few days' journey toolc them to Jonesborough, a village of about 
sixty log huts. Beyond this all was wilderness for two hundred 
miles, to Nashville, the western limit of settlement. At Jones- 
borough they waited for several days the arrival of other parties 
of emigrants, and for a guard from Nashville to escort them. 
Something like one hundred men, women and children were in 
the company. 

The second night out, after the women and children were all 
asleep in their tents, and the men wrapped in their blankets by 
the side of the fire, Andrew Jackson sat up, quietly musing, 
when he heard now and then unusual noises. He listened, and 
soon became convinced that there were Indians about them. 
He crept to the nearest men and awakened them. Soon the 
whole company was awake, and moved on toward Nashville as 
fast as possible. An hour afterward a party of hunters came in 
sight of the fires, and gathered about them and went to sleep. 
Before daylight the Indians sprang upon them and killed all 
but one. 

The emigrants reached Nashville the last of October, 1788. 
These emigrants carried the news of the adoption of the new 
constitution, and that Washington would probably be chosen 
the first executive of the new government. This outpost of 



ANDREW JACKSON". 237 

civilization felt the joy of an organized government under the 
paternal administration of Washington, and anticipated the 
time when the long reaches of the great wilderness between 
them and their friends in the East wonld be settled with thriv- 
ing communities. It Avas estimated that there were in and 
about Nashville some five thousand people, clearing up the 
wilderness and planting homes. The dangers from the Indians 
were great and constant. Men carried their rifles wherever 
they went. Stockades were made for all the peojile to flee to in 
case of an attack. 

JACKSON THE LAWYER. 

Jackson soon determined to make Nashville his home. There 
was but one lawyer there before him, and he had fallen into the 
hands of the roughs and the delinquents to the merchants and 
land owners, and defended them. He set up an office, and at 
once had an immense amount of collections put into his hands. 
He made out some seventy writs the first day. The merchants 
and land owners had been unable to force their claims, and 
they welcomed a new lawyer. The roughs sought to intimidate 
and drive him out of the jolace, but his imperious Avill and fiery 
temper soon taught them that such a course only endangered 
them. He never shunned a fight; often had personal encoun- 
ters; was fierce and fearless, wiry and powerful, and withal, so 
much of a man that he was not long in conquering a victory, 
and forcing the respect" of the delinquents and bellicose men of 
that hitherto lawless community. 

With his energy and push, and the monied portion of the 
community as his clients, his business flourished. His official 
business as prosecutor took him frequently to Jonesborough 
and other settlements far apart, which journeys he made on 
horseback, and with ponstant danger from the Indians, and 
exposure to storms and floods. 

When he first went to Nashville, he found a boarding, place 
with a Mrs. Donelson. She was the widow of Colonel John 
Donelson, and was much respected. She lived in a cabin of 
hewn logs, which was then the aristocratic style of a house. She 



238 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

had a married daughter, Mrs. Robards, the wife of Lewis Rob- 
ards, of Kentucky, and her husband living with her. Their 
marriage relation was not happy. He is said to have been a man 
of wliom not much good could be said. His wife was beautiful, 
sprightly, a lover of mirth ; and a woman of excellent natural 
ability. He was jealous of her, and greatly annoyed her by it ; 
and once left her for a time, before Jackson knew them. Now 
that Jackson had come into the family as a boarder, who had 
agreeable -manners with women, and a fund of anecdotes and 
entertaining conversation, Robards became jealous of him, and 
made it exceedingly disagreeable for him. He sought to talk 
with him about it; but got only abuse. 

The matter grew into a scandal, and Jackson concluded to 
leave the house; but so uncomfortable had Mrs. Robards become, 
that she determined to leave the place, and go to Natches, into 
the family of Colonel Stark ; an elderly gentleman and friend 
of the family. 

The way was dangerous on account of Indians, and Colonel 
vStark invited Jackson to go along as a protector, who had 
become known and feared among the Indians as ''Sharp Knife." 
This did not mend the scandal. 

This was in the spring of 1791. Robards left, and applied 
to the legislature of Virginia for a divorce. This was granted, 
provided the supreme court should see cause for a divorce. It 
was rej^orted, and became the universal belief in Nashville that 
Robards had obtained a divorce. Mrs. Robards came back in 
the fall, and was married to Jackson. The marriage was a 
hajopy one, and gave them both great joy through their whole- 
lives. 

After they had been married two years, Robards obtained a 
divorce in a court in Kentucky ; then Jackson saw that he had 
been married two years to a woman who was legally another 
man's wife. To make their union legal, they were married again. 

But happy as was their marriage, the unfortunate circum- 
stances, the suspicion and the scandal always greatly marred their 
peace. Jackson's enemies always used it against him; and many 
of them, no doubt, believed that he broke up a family to get 



ANDREW JACKSON. 239 

another man's wife. His past manner of life; his lawlessness 
and imperiousness, and passionate nature, did not do' much to 
prove his innocence. But his friends believed him every way 
pure and worthy in the whole transaction. It is worthy of note 
that no reproach was ever cast upon him for any misconduct 
toward women, save this ; which goes f;ir to prove him what he 
always seemed to be — magnanimous, just and true to her. 

While practicing law in Nashville, lie soon began to get hold 
of land ; and in a few years became an extensive land owner. 
This he sold to settlers at advanced prices, and became wealthy 
for that region of country. Loving agriculture, he practiced it 
more or less. He was always a careful business man, thrifty, 
efficient, successful. With his law business, his much journey- 
ing, his extensive land and agricultural business, he became a 
man of affairs. 

THE LEGISLATOR. 

In January, 1796, the territory of Tennessee, then containing 
nearly eighty thousand inhabitants, had ripened for admission into 
the Union. A convention was called at Knoxville to frame a 
constitution. Five delegates were sent from each of the eleven 
counties. Andrew Jackson was one of the delegates from David- 
son county. They met in a shabby building outside of the city, 
which was prepared for the convention at an expense of twelve 
dollars and sixty-two cents. Each member Avas entitled to two 
dollars and a half a day; but they voted to give one dollar of it 
to pay the secretary, printer and doorkeeper, reserving only a 
dollar and a half a day to themselves. A constitution was 
formed, and in June, 179G, Tennessee became the sixteenth state 
in the Union. 

The new state could have but one member in the United 
States House of Eepresentatives. Jackson was elected to that 
position, and took his seat in December, 1796. He rode on 
horseback from Nashville to Philadelphia, a distance of eight 
hundred miles. Albert Gallatin thus describes him as he 
appeared in the house: "A tall, lank, uncouth-looking person- 
age, with locks of hair hanging over his face, and a cue down 



340 OtJR PRESIDE^fTi^. 

his back, tied Avitli an eel-skin, his dress singular, his manners 
and deportment those of a rough backwoodsman." 

Mr. Jackson took his seat near the close of General Wash- 
ington's administration. He heard the farewell address of ''The 
Father of his Country" to his j)eople. A committee drew up a 
complimentary address in reply. Jackson was one of twelve to 
vote against that reply. He would not say that Washington's 
administration was "wise, firm and patriotic." 

Jackson was an intense democrat — a disciple of Jefferson, an 
admirer of Bonaparte, a lover of France, a hater of England, a 
slaveholder who saw no wrong in slavery — nothing undemocratic 
in buying and selling men and women and working them for 
their pretended owner's profit; yet he could vote in censure of 
Washington's administration. 

Tennessee had gone into warlike operations against the 
Indians without authority, and contrary to the policy of the 
government. A proposition had been made in the House to 
refund to Tennessee the expenses she had incurred in this unor- 
dered Indian expedition. Jackson advocated it with great zeal, 
and the proposition was supported. This made Jackson still 
more popular in his state ; and a vacancy occurring the next 
season, he was elected United States Senator. But he remained 
in the position but a little while, resigning in 1798. 

JUDGE JACKSOIS". 

Soon after his return from the United States Senate, he was 
chosen judge of the supreme court of Tennessee, at a salary of 
six hundred dollars a year, which office he held for six years. 

At the time Jackson was a Judge, John Sevier was governor 
of the state. They had had a personal difficulty, and Jackson 
had challenged him for a duel, which Sevier had declined. At 
an accidental meeting in the streets of Knoxville, unfriendly 
words soon began, to be bandied between them, in which Jack- 
son spoke of his services to the state. ''Services !" rejoined the 
governor, "I know of none but a trip to Natchez with another 
man's wife." "Great Gfod !" shouted Jackson, "do you men- 
tion her sacred name?" and in an instant drew a pistol and fired 



Al^DREW JACKSOK. 241 

at the governor, and the governor returned the sliot ; but in 
their frenzy, both shot at random, and neither hurt each other 
or anybody else, or at all wounded their reputations as wise and 
dignified and law-honoring judge and governor. Meeting soon 
after on a highway, when Doctor Vandyke was with Jack- 
son, he drew a pistol and called to the governor to defend 
himself. The governor leaped from his horse, and the animal, 
in self defense, took to his heels. His son, who was with him, 
drew his pistol ; Vandyke drew his. In this war-like attitude, 
some travelers came up and put a stop to the fray. 

This standing quarrel between judge and governor, broke 
out anew whenever they met, and involved many of their friends 
in it. Neither of them seemed to see that it reflected on the 
dignity of their official standing. In 1804, he resigned his 
judgeship. 

BUSINESS EMBARRASSMENTS. 

In his land speculations, and mercantile and produce busi- 
ness, he became financially involved. He had sold land to a 
Philadelphian who had failed and could not pay him. His 
partners had made mistakes and involved the firm. He sold 
property, paid all, and began again, in a smaller and safer way. 
His business difficulties came through others' mistakes, not 
his own. 

PERSONAL COMPLICATIONS, 

Early in 1806, Jackson got into a difficulty with Mr. Charles 
Dickinson, a young lawyer, who was also engaged in trade. It 
grew out of something that Dickinson had said disparaging of 
Mrs. Jackson. He had explained the wor,ds, and the offense was 
smothered. 

Soon after, at a horse-race, where his favorite horse was to 
run on a stake of two thousand dollars, he got into an alterca- 
tion with a young man by the name of Swann. Swann chal- 
lenged him for a duel, but he refused to accept it, on the ground 
that Swann was not a gentleman; but he beat him with a 
bludgeon, a disgraceful affair in the dueling code. This led the 
way to a revival of the Dickinson trouble, as he had been 
16 * 



242 OUR PfiESlDElS'Tg. 

referred to by Swann, and a duel was brought on with Dickinson. 
Dickinson was regarded as the best shot in the world, — could, 
at the distance they were to stand apart, hit a dollar every shot. 
He was a brilliant young man, and very popular. The distance 
was eight paces. Dickinson fired at the word, and struck a rib 
near the breast bone, breaking it, but turning the ball so it only 
inflicted a fearful wound, but did not enter his vitals. Jackson 
gave no sign of being hit, and Dickinson exclaimed, *^'Good 
God! have I missed him?" Jackson then fired with deliberate 
aim, and shot his antagonist through, who died that night, 
without knowing that he had hit Jackson. 

This duel, so needless, cutting down a young husband, and 
man of many friends, hurt Jackson's popularity, till he retrieved 
it with his mititary successes. 

In 1805 Aaron Burr visited Jackson in the interest of his 
contemplated expedition in the southwest. Jackson fell readily 
into his blandishments, and entered into his project arranging 
to furnish men and boats. He proposed to conquer the Spanish 
dominions, and it is believed he secretly intended to establish a 
separate government making the seat of it on the Red river 
where he purchased four hundred thousand acres of land. But 
Jackson's suspicions of his integrity were soon aroused and he 
withdrew from all connection Avith him. Burr was afterward 
tried for high treason, but the charge was not sustained. At 
Burr's tial in Richmond, Virginia, Jackson was summoned as a 
witness. He chamjjioned Burr's cause. Mr. Parton, one of 
his biographers, says: "There he harangued the crowd in the 
capitol square, defending Burr and denouncing Jefferson as a 
persecutor. There are those living (in 1859) who heard him do 
this. He made himself so conspicuous as Burr's champion at 
Richmond, that Mr. Madison, secretary of state, took deep 
offense at it, and remembered it to Jackson's disadvantage five 
years later, when he was president of the United States, with a 
war on his hands. For the same reason, I presume, it was that 
Jackson was not called upon to give testimony upon the trial." 

After this time he lived for some years in private life at the 
Hermitage, the name of his home. But, as was so common 



ANDREW JACKSON". 243 

with him; he had his troubles Avith various parties, among them 
" an animated quarrel with Mr. Dinsmore, agent of the Choc- 
taw Indians." 

GENERAL JACKSON. 

Jackson had now been general of the militia for some years. 
In 1813 when the war with England broke out he offered his 
services to the government with two thousand five hundred men 
of his division of the Tennessee militia. His offer was accepted. 
In October Governor Blount of Tennessee was asked to send 
one thousand five hundred men to New Orleans. Jackson 
called for a meeting of troops at Nashville, December 10. A 
force of infantry and cavalry met and was organized amounting 
to two thousand and seventy men. On January 7, 1813, the 
infantry embarked in boats for Natchez, and the cavalry 
marched across the country. 

No use was made of this force, and m the spring it returned 
to Nashville. The General offered it for an invasion of Canada, 
but no answer was received from Washington and it Avas dis- 
banded. 

While on the march from Natchez to Nashville the soldiers 
called their general "Hickory" on account of his toughness. 
In later years he was called Old Hickory, and hickory poles and 
trees abounded in his campaigns for the presidency, and at the 
celebrations of his victory at New Orleans. So identified did 
he become with this symbol of his toughness, that an old man 
who was a democratic boy in his time, cannot see a hickory tree 
without being reminded of Jackson. The hickory was one of 
the means of his popularity. The woodsmen over the whole 
country took to him on this account. 

In 1813, Jackson's friend, who afterward became General 
Carroll, got involved in a quarrel with Jesse Benton, a brother 
of Thomas H. Benton, and was challenged for a duel. Carroll 
asked Jackson to be his second. Jackson prevented the duel 
for awhile, but Benton was bound to have it out according to 
the code of honor's barbarity. Benton sent an account of it to 
his brother at Washington. This led to an angry correspond- 



244 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

ence between Colonel Benton and Jackson. Jackson threat- 
ened to horsewhip him at their first meeting. They met in a 
street in Nashville^, September 4. Jackson advanced ujion him. 
Benton retreated backward till he stumbled down the stairway 
of a hotel. Just at this moment Jesse Benton fired at Jackson 
a pistol loaded with two balls and a slug, shattering his shoulder 
and bringing hirn to the ground. A general melee among the 
friends of both followed in which several were hurt, but none 
killed. All the doctors but one recommended the amputation 
of the shattered arm. But Jackson would not consent to it, 
and in due time it become a useful arm. 

On the thirtieth of August, 1813, the massacre of Fort 
Minims, by the Creek Indians, created a great excitement 
throughout the southwest. Jackson, from his bed, addressed 
circulars to all who would arm themselves to punish the Indians, 
to meet at Fort Stephens. On the twenty-fifth of September 
the legislature of Tennessee called for three thousand five 
hundred volunteers, besides the one thousand five hundred that 
were in the national service. Still suffering from his wound, 
Jackson met and took command of this force October 7. On 
the eleventh he moved rapidly toward the Indian's center of 
operation. After two or three severe battles with the Indians 
which severely i)unished them, the half-fed army became 
mutinous, and many went home. Some new recruits came in, 
some friendly Indians joined him, and with such an army as he 
had, he plunged into the midst of the Indian territory. ' After 
two or three successful battles in January, troops began to come 
to him. In February he had five thousand men. He followed 
and attacked the Indians in their own strongholds in such raj^id 
succession that by midsummer they were completely conquered, 
their chief surrendered, and he made a treaty with them by 
which the most of them left the country and went north. A few 
fied to Florida. So thorough was his work, that it is said to 
have broken the power of the Indians in North America. 

This gave General Jackson a national reputation. Occurring 
at the time the country was at war with England, and perhaps 
an Indian outbreak which the English had incited, it made him 



ANDREW JACKSON. 245 

a hero, even more than it would to have gained a victory over 
so many English soldiers. 

In May, 1814, General Jackson was major-general of the 
United States army in the southwest over six other generals 
who had claims to the position. 

The English were preparing for a grand attack on the south- 
west in July, General Jackson pushed forward to Mobile to 
hinder as much as possible their operations in that quarter. 
They had possession of Pensacola in Spanish territory, which 
they used as though it were their own. Jackson wrote for 
orders, but getting no answer moved against it with three 
thousand men and cleaned it of British war force and materials. 
He sent a force against the Florida Indians witli equal success. 
He was soon back to Mobile in force; but finding he had swept 
that region clear of the enemy, he sent the mass of his army to 
New Orleans, and reached that place himself December 2, 1814. 

On December 14, a powerful British naval force came up the 
river and captured several gunboats and a schooner. The next 
day Jackson proclaimed martial law in New Orleans. On the 
morning of the twenty-third the advance of the British army 
came within nine miles of New Orleans. At two o'clock that 
afternoon, with a little over two thousand men, Jackson 
attacked the enemy. A severe battle ensued, aided by Lieutenant 
Henly in the schooner Carolina. This battle gave the British 
warning of the welcome they might expect when they went 
nearer the city. 

That night the British were heavily reinforced, and had an 
army of trained soldiers and marines of fourteen thousand 
effective men armed and supplied according to the best art of 
war at that time. This is the highest estimate. Their own 
writers have put their force as low as eight thousand. To 
oppose this force Jackson had a force of less than four thousand, 
composed of Kentucky, Tennessee and Louisiana militia, with a 
few regulars. He had two sloops of war in the river and one 
colored battalion. 

After the battle of the twenty-third of December, Jackson 
fell back to within four miles of the city, and began to throw up 



246 OUK PRESIDENTS. 

an embankment from the river back to the swamps^ a distance 
of more than a mile. He employed every available force of men 
and boys, to complete his line of defense as soon as possible. 
He could dig only about three feet before coming to water. He 
filled his poorly equipped and raw soldiers, who were there for 
the defense of their homes and country, with the spirit and 
power of heroes. They were there a wall of defense to save the 
city and the country behind it. The caution of General Pack- 
enham, the British commander, kept him bringing up reinforce- 
ments and making preparations till the twenty-eighth. On that 
day he came on, confident and strong, with his battalions that 
believed themselves invincible. Steadily, solidly, with bands 
playing, banners flying, swords and bayonets glistening, they 
marched upon the line of the American defense. The artillery 
led, and opened the attack. The Americans waited till the 
British column was within easy gun shot, and then opened on it 
to give it no quarter till it was swept away as though it were of 
gossamer. Two hours of steady cannonade and musketry work 
sent the shattered British columns back in confusion, leaving 
the field strewn with the dead and dying. 

They retreated two miles and encamped. They began at 
once to repair their losses. From their ships they brought more 
cannon and marines. On the night of the thirty-first, which 
was very dark, they moved forward to within three hundred 
yards of the American line and under cover of a heavy cannon- 
ade, began to dig for protection against the American fire in the 
morning. The next morning was Sunday. A dense fog shut 
everything from sight, till about ten o'clock it lifted, revealing 
the pageantry of grim war covering all the plains. The batteries 
at once opened; the British columns moved forward and opened 
fire. The air was perfectly still, and soon dense with smoke; 
but Jackson's men knew the range and fired continuously into tlie 
fast falling ranks of their enemy. It was a short work. The 
British fled to their entrenchments and ceased firing. For this 
battle cotton bales had been brought for better protection, but 
they did not serve the purpose, and were abandoned. 

Three times now the enemy had been beaten back. What 



ANDREW JACKSON. 247 

would he do next? He had immense resources, and England's 
best military talent and skill to use them. The people of the 
city and our army were in intense anxiety. That thin wall of 
human flesh and blood, with the mighty will of Andrew Jackson, 
was all that stood in the way of destruction. Every preparation 
to receive the next shock, which could be made, was adopted. 

Sunday morning, January 8,about half an hour before sun- 
rise, the hostile line began to move again. Intrepid and firm 
stood Jackson and his men in their places. The battle array 
had now stretched across the river, and Jackson had to provide 
an additional force for that side. 

The enemy came on steady and resolute; now for the fourth 
time, only to fall in almost whole regiments before the deadly 
fire of Jackson's men. Two hours of such work sent them 
flying back, with Packenham, their leader, dead on the field, 
General Gibbs mortally wounded, and General Keane severely 
wounded. They rallied again; but it was only the effort of an 
exhausted and beaten army. So was fought and won the great 
battle of New Orleans. Nothing more courageous and decisive 
had been done on this continent. With everything against him, 
and double the number of his own men at least, and trained 
soldiers against raw recruits, he held England's pride and power 
at bay for two weeks and then sent them away shattered and 
beaten. 

They remained ten days in their encampments, then stole 
away to their ships and departed. 

General Jackson now became the hero of the American 
people ; he had settled with the Indians ; had saved New 
Orleans; had won imperishable honors for American arms; had 
sent England's last army back in disgrace from our shores. His 
faults, vices and crimes were now forgotten. His savage tem- 
per, foul speech and barbaric will all grew virtuous in the white 
glory of this great victory. For the time being the common 
people were mad with delight, and were ready to canonize Jack- 
son and hold him the paragon of all virtues. They have at last 
come to see him as a craggy mountain, rough, stormy, bold. 



248 OUR PKESIDENTS. 

with great defiles, dark recesses and jutting points, yet solid 
and grand in strength. 

General Jackson had his troubles at New Orleans with citi- 
zens. His enemies were severe on him for establishing martial 
law. He had one man arrested and imprisoned. The judge 
set him at liberty on a writ of habeas corpus; then Jackson 
banished the judge from the city. The news of the treaty of 
Ghent and peace came right on; then the judge returned and 
fined Jackson a thousand dollars. The people wanted to pay it, 
but he would not permit it. Years after, it, with interest, was 
refunded to him by Congress, 

But not to Jackson alone was due the victory over the 
Indians and British. The people of Tennessee, Kentucky, 
Louisiana, and the whole southwest, were joined with him, and 
are to be accorded their full share in the struggle, patriotism 
and glory of the great consummation. 

General Jackson retired to the Hermitage, near Nashville, 
but to remain but a little while. Near the close of the next 
year (1817) the Seminole Indians in Florida were on the war 
path. General Jackson was ordered to take the field against 
them. He gathered a large force of regulars. Creek Indians 
and militia of Tennessee and Georgia. He went into Florida 
while it was yet a Spanish territory, took Fort St. Marks, where 
he captured a Scotchman named Arbuthnot, and at Suwanee 
captured one Ambrister. Both these were British subjects. He 
tried them by court martial, found them guilty of inciting the 
"Indians against the United States, and had them executed. 
Two Indian chiefs were hanged by his order. He continued his 
march, and took Pensacola, The Spanish authorities com- 
plained. The country was divided on the subject of his inva- 
sion of Spanish territory; some condemning, some approving, 
his course. The secretary of state, John Quincy Adams, 
approved it. 

In 1821, when Spain ceded Florida to the United States, 
Jackson was apjDointed governor of the territory, but he held 
the office but a little while. President Monroe offered him the 
post of minister to Mexico, which he did not accept. 



ANDREW JACKSON". 249 

In 1823 the Tennessee legislature elected him to the United 
States Senate, and nominated him for the presidency. This 
nomination was treated as a joke by many, so unfit did they 
regard him for that place. But in the ensuing presidential 
election, in 1824, he received ninety-nine electoral votes; but, 
as there was no choice by the electors, the House of Representa- 
tives elected John Quincy Adams. He retired again to the 
Hermitage ; but at the next presidential election the entire 
opposition to Adams united on Jackson, and he was elected. 

PRESIDENT JACKSON. 

The i3olitical and sectional contest which elected Jackson 
was a severe one. The opposition to Adams was chiefly a sec- 
tional one. He was a northern man; was personally opposed to 
slavery; his father was a federalist, and he was elected by a 
federalist district. Though non-partisan and a most just and 
wise president, he did not suit partisans or sectionalists. Both 
wanted more influence in the government than they could get 
under him. Jackson was a democrat of the radical type. The 
slave states were democratic in theory, though autocratic in 
practice toward Africans; Jackson was a democrat and a slave 
holder; so, as a democrat and a slave holder, he suited the 
southern section of the country. 

He was very bitterly opposed. All his strong peculiarities ; 
his hot temper ; his irresistible will; his quarrels and duels; his 
marrying another man's wife ; his lack of an education ; his 
ignorance as a civilian — all were used against him to make the 
contest personal, sharp and severe. There were no principles 
involved that it did the people good to consider and discuss. 
There were no measures before the people which related to good 
government and the improvement of the country. The whole 
contest was personal, partisan and sectional, educating the peo- 
ple only in things harmful and belittling. 

Before General Jackson was inaugurated president, his wife 
sickened and died. It was said at the time that the public 
recital of all her marriage troubles, hastened her death. It was 
a heavy blow to her most loyal and devoted husband. Few men 



250 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

were ever more genuinely married to a woman than was Jackson 
to her. Her hajDpiness was his pleasure. His imperious nature 
was lamb-like in her presence. To her he was gentle, patient, 
self-forgetful. This manly devotion to his wife through all 
their years together, was the most redeeming and honorable 
trait in his character. It opens into green fields and blooming 
gardens in his soul which the world knew but little of. It indi- 
cated a greatness far surpassing any other he ever exhibited. 

March 4, 1829, Andrew Jackson began a Jacksonian admin- 
istration. It was like everything else he did, peculiar, positive, 
imperious. In two years he made an entire new cabinet ; said 
to have been brought about by a scandal relating to Mrs. Eaton, 
the Avife of his secretary of war. The other ladies of his court 
did not fancy Mrs. Eaton. She was the wife of his friend and 
he was bound to sustain her. But probably the dislike of Cal- 
houn and his friends had something to do with it also. 

In 1832 Congress rechartered the national bank, through 
which the national finances had been conducted and in which 
the national deposits were made. The president vetoed the bill. 
This created great alarm among monied men and an immense 
excitement. It struck at the center of business and portended 
commercial disaster. He made many removals from office on 
partisan grounds and filled their places with his friends. And 
this made the more comment as he had approved Mr. Monroe's 
non-partisan appointments. Up to this time all presidents had 
respected the rights of the minority and been presidents of the 
whole people. He instituted the new order of "to the victor 
belong the spoils." He made partisanship venal. 

He continued the war on the national bank; removed two or 
three secretaries from the cabinet to get one to do his bidding 
in making the national deposits in state banks ; was opposed by 
the Senate, which refused to confirm some of his appointments. 
The Senate passed a resolution of censure on him. 

He opposed the extension of the national road and internal 
improvements generally. His administration was narrow, belli- 
cose and imperious. It produced a great panic in business; was 
a hindrance to the growth of the country, which advanced only 



AXDREW JACKSON. 251 

in spite of it. The country bore the evils of state bank currency 
till the Jackson faction in politics was overcome and the present 
national currency established. 

Mr. Calhoun was his vice-president and opposed him. Jack- 
son was a moderate tariff man. Calhoun was opposed to any 
tariff, and led a faction in South Carolina, who wished to 
nullify the tariff laws by refusing to pay duties on imported 
goods at the port of Charleston. It was the state rights doc- 
trine put in practice — the seed of rebellion — was rebellion on 
a small scale. Jackson opposed it fiercely, and was widely sus- 
tained in his opposition. 

The foreign affairs of his government were better conducted. 

Just before the close of his administration, the Senate 
expugned its resolution of censure of the president. 

Yet imperious, factional, and ill-judged as Jackson's admin- 
istration was in most particulars, and opposed as it was to the 
established jDrinciples of the government in many particulars, it 
continued to be popular with the masses. The "Old Hickory^' 
furor did not die. The battle of New Orleans could not be for- 
gotten. His absolutism gratified the democratic love of a 
powerful leader — a king in the people's name. 

Jefferson's fears were realized. Before Jackson's election 
Mr. Jefferson said to Daniel Webster : ''I feel much alarmed at 
the prospect of seeing General Jackson president. He is one of 
the most unfit men I know of for such a place. He has very 
little respect for law or constitutions ; and is in fact an able 
military chief. His passions are terrible. "When I was pres- 
ident of the Senate he was senator ; and he could never speak 
on account of the rashness of his feelings. I have seen him 
attempt it repeatedly, and as often choke with rage. His pas- 
sions are no doubt cooler now. He has been much tried since I 
knew him ; but he is a dangerous man." But it turned out that 
his passions had not much cooled. He was Jefferson's disciple 
in political doctrines, but he was a man so different that there 
could be but little affinity between thenir 

Mr. Parton, his appreciative biographer, says of him : "His 
ignorance of law, history, politics, science, — of everything 



2i)2 OUR PKESIDENTS. 

which he who governs a country ought to know, — was extreme. 
Mr. Trist remembers hearing a member of the general's family- 
say that General Jackson did not believe the world was round. 
His ignorance was a wall round about him, high and impenetrable. 
He was imprisoned in his ignorance, and sometimes raged 
around his little dim enclosure like a tiger in his den." Yet he 
had many grand qualities which will never be forgotten to be 
set down to his credit. 

March 4, 1837, he retired from public life to the Hermitage, 
where he lived in rural peace, growing calmer, sweeter, gentler, 
till the close of his earthly life. In his later days he became a 
devout christian. He had always believed in Christianity as 
taught by the Presbyterian church. The evening of his life was 
a benediction. Every day he gathered his family servants about 
him, and led them in family worship. His spirit became Christ- 
like. He loved to read the scriptures and meditate upon their 
teachings. Heaven was near and dear to him, especially so as 
his wife waited his coming there. His was a great soul, which 
had a rough voyage on this turbulent sea; yet it went calmly and 
grandly into port at last. It was one of the great products of 
the reijublic — tropical and vigorous ; yet it is a beacon of warn- 
ing to the generations, against the neglect of education, the 
spirit of faction and the narrowness of iJartisanship, as well as 
against elevating to national leadership men undisciplined in 
self-control and untrained in civic affairs. 



ABTDEEW JACKSOK. ^53 



^HE %AVE OF Andrew Iackson. 

Jackson and the Hermitage are associated terms, like Wash- 
ington and Mount Vernon. Man and his home ought to be 
associated terms. 

Eleven miles from Nashville, Tennessee, on the Lebanon 
turnpike, that affords a beautiful drive between rows of shade- 
trees, is the Hermitage, where Andrew Jackson dwelt and died, 
and where many gi'eat men used to go to see him. It is a two- 
storied brick house with porticos, supported by Corinthian col- 
umns. It is neglected, and slowly going to decay. Some fifty 
or sixty rods away is the old wooden house he lived in before 
this was built. Other old time buildings are not far away. 

At a little distance from the house, perhaps two hundred 
feet or more, in the corner of the garden, are the graves of 
President Jackson and his wife, beneath a massive monument of 
Tennessee limestone. There is a circular area of earth, eighteen 
feet across, and elevated some two feet. On a base covering the 
graves, are erected eight fluted columns, which support a plain, 
but well-conceived entablature, surmounted by an urn. Within, 
the ceiling and cornice are ornamented with white stucco work. 
In the center of this column-enclosed platform, resting on a 
square base is a pyramid. On the left, just over the body of the 
president, is a stone with this inscription : 



^ (&cncx:iX ^ndxcvo 'gcucUson, ^ 

* Born March 15, 1767; * 

Died June 8, 1845. \ 



On the right of the pyramid is a similar stone, the inscrip- 
tion on which records his profound estimation of his wife : 
" Eachael, who died December 22, 1838, at the age of sixty-one. 
Her face was fair; her person pleasing; her temper amiable, and 
her heart kind ; she delighted in relieving the wants of her fel- 



254 



OtJR PRESIDENTS. 



low creatures, and cultivated the Divine pleasure by the most 
liberal and unpretending methods; to the poor she was a bene- 
factor, to the wretched a comforter, to the rich an example, to 
the prosperous an ornament; her piety went hand in hand with 
her benevolence, and she thanked her Creator for being able 
to do good. A being so gentle and yet so virtuous, slander 
might wound, but could not dishonor ; even death, when he 
tore her from the arms of her husband, could but transport 
her to the bosom of her God.'* 





y 7 7/^^ /.^^/7/^^.^ 



ENGRAVED EKPREESSLY FOR WEAVERS LIVES AMD GRAVES ' 



CHAPTER IX. 



MAETIN YAH" BUEEK 

Eighth PREsroENT of the United States. 



Jjf URNING from General Jackson's to Martin Van Buren's 
g I life is like leaving the turbulent ocean and gliding into 
a peaceful, land-locked harbor. Between the two men 
<^'J^ there could not be sharper contrasts; yet they were ardent 
personal friends. Jackson was nearly sixteen years the 
senior, and had the combined feelings of a father and 
elder brother, after their acquaintance, toward his young friend 
and political co-worker. 

It is instructive to trace the history of men so different, 
reared in the same country, accepting the same political princi- 
ples and trained in the same school of partisan life. It shows 
the power of original endowment and social surroundings. 



AKCESTEY, BIRTH AND BOYHOOD. 

As the name indicates, the ancestors of Martin Van Buren 
were Germans. They belonged to that thrifty and solid-sensed 
class which settled in the valley of the Hudson and put so much 
good blood, muscle and character into the society of the New 
World. 

The emigrants from Holland and Germany have had a strong 
life in America. Holland was quite abreast of England in 
advanced ideas in the seventeenth century. The men of the 
Mayflower went first to Holland, and then came to the new con- 

255 



256 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

tinent. Emigrants from Holland followed right on. Their 
life and Avork are mingled in the people and institutions of this 
country. 

Martin Van Buren's father, Abraham Van Buren, was a 
farmer in the old town of Kinderhook, a few miles east of the 
Hudson. When Martin was once asked how far he could trace 
his lineage, he replied, "To Kinderhook," Up from the com- 
mon people the great minds of the republic have come. Mr. 
Van Buren was also a tavern-keeper, turning thrifty pennies 
from a double calling. 

Martin was the eldest son, born December 5, 1782, just as 
the revolutionary war was closing. The valley of the Hudson 
had been swept over and over by the tides of that war, and its 
inhabitants were charged with its public and patriotic spirit. 
The generation to which Martin belonged was born of that 
spirit. That great "time that tried men's souls " projected 
itself into the next generation. 

As the boy-of-all-work on a farm and the general helper about 
a country hotel Martin was taught a variety of useful lessons — 
the use of his hands and muscles in work and of his mind and 
manners in mingling with men. He had an early contact with 
material nature and human nature, both of which he studied 
to profit. 

To most boys the old country tavern was an unprofitable 
place. The waste of time and money in the bar-room, the pro- 
fanity and ribaldry too common there, the company that drags 
down and the lessons that corrupt, all tend to make it the last place 
to look for the boys that make presidents. While a hundred boys 
would have been weighted down by the depressing influences of 
such a place, Martin Van Buren set his face upward, treated 
everybody with respect, learned to be courteous, a gentleman to 
everybody, and at the same time how to serve, please, keep his 
own counsels and what are the mainsprings of human action. 
It was not the highest practical education which he got in this 
place, but it was one, no doubt, which did much to shape his 
character and career. It made him observant, studious to 
please, bland, genial and shrewd without the appearance of 



MARTIN VAN" BUREN. ^St 

effort. It is interesting to connect nis later life and character 
with this practical school of his boyhood. 

His early education was got in the schools of his village, 
which he attended until he was fourteen. It is said that he 
finished his academic studies in his native village when 
fourteen. 

He then began the study of law in an office in Kinderhook, 
and perseveringly pursued it six years. Then he went to New 
York city and studied under the tuition of William P. Van 
Ness, who afterward became much known, and especially for 
his connection with the Burr and Hamilton duel, in which 
the latter lost his life. Martin became acquainted with Burr, 
who was intimate with Van Ness. Burr was at this time a 
brilliant and seductive man in the midst of a very popular 
career. Martin Van Buren was a handsome, polite, precocious 
and talented young man of twenty. There was much that was 
congenial between them. They were both men of fine manners 
and forceful and brilliant minds. Burr was unprincipled and 
came to a great fall, but at this time was suspected by none. 
His brilliance was froth on a foul pool. 

At the end of a year in New York city, in seeking a knowl- 
edge of law, ho returned to Kinderhook and set up the practice 
of his profession. At that time such a long study was demanded 
to get admission to the bar, because he had not a college edu- 
cation. The defect was not remedied by the long study; for 
beyond a doubt, his whole career was narrowed, weakened, 
less dignified and high-minded than it would have been had he 
had the bracing and broadening of a full course of academic 
study. He became noted as a politician rather than a states- 
man — just the result that such a defective beginning might 
have been expected to produce. He was narrow, local, time- 
serving, studious of expedients, managing for men and votes, 
artful in management, shrewd in partisanship, rather than 
broad, general, long-seeing, comprehensive, national. His popu- 
larity was temporary and not permanent. He built no great 
monuments for the ages to remember him by. And not because 
he had not ability, but because he did not educate himself broadly. 
17 



258 orii PUEsiDEXTS. 

He sought only a boy's education, the rudiments, not tlie 
principles of learning. The education obtained before sixteen 
is such as a boy comjorehends ; that got afterward lays the 
foundation of the man. The boy Van Buren was educated; the 
man Van Buren was not. The man was put to the law, and 
made a technical, close, formal lawyer, rather than a broad, 
great-thinking, fresh and expansive man. A born gentleman, 
with a rich and vigorous mind, active, studious, eager for 
knowledge, ambitious for honorable distinction, patriotic and 
humane, he yet only began to study, and then hurried on to the 
technology of the law — to the often belittling drudgery of 
detail. Always will the readers of his externally successful 
life deplore its too narrow and stinted beginning. 

VAN BUEEN THE LAWYEE. 

In 1803, in the twenty-first year of his age, young Van 
Buren was admitted to the bar as an attorney at law. He 
immediately entered into partnership with his half brother, 
James I. Van Allen, and entered into the practice of law in 
Kinderhook. While a student he often tried cases before jus- 
tices of the i^eace, and showed a cleverness and penetration which 
augured the successful lawyer. Four years later he was 
admitted to the supreme court. In 1808 he was appointed sur- 
rogate of Columbia county; and soon after that he removed to 
Hudson, the county seat of his county — a thriving town on the 
Hudson river. His practice increased and became extensive in 
a few years. His devotion to his profession, his readiness as a 
speaker, his bland ways and manly and courteous bearing won 
him friends and success. For some twenty-five years he con- 
tinued his successful and lucrative practice. In 1806 he mar- 
ried Miss Hannah Hoes, to whom he had been sincerely attached 
for a number of years. It was an agreeable marriage and 
brought to both its mutual pleasures and profits. Four sons 
were born to them when his wife began to decline with con- 
sumption, and died in 1818. He remained a widower through 
his life. 



MARTIN- VAN" BUREN". 259 



A POLITICIAN". 

Mr. Van Buren embraced tlie political views of his father 
■who was an enthusiastic admirer of Jefferson. Many of the 
young man's relatives were federalists. The federalists were in 
the majority in his state. They endeavored to persuade him to 
the majority as a matter of good business policy. But he was 
a sincere democrat and gave no heed to such persuasions. As 
early as his eighteenth year he was appointed a delegate from 
his native town to a political convention, to nominate a candi- 
date to the legislature. He i^'epared an address to the electors 
of his dristrict, young as he was. 

When he was twenty years old Mr, Jefferson was elected to 
the presidency. He was young Van Buren's ideal statesman. 
By this event his enthusiasm for his ideal teacher of political 
truth was all that an ardent young soul could give. Jefferson's 
messages, addresses, statements of policy, were his study. He 
gave his ardent support to all the president's men and meas- 
ures. The eight years of Jefferson's administration fixed Mr. 
Van Buren deeply in the grooves of the democratic party. He 
was too ardent a follower of his great master to raise any doubts 
or queries about any of his teachings, and too little breadth of 
intellectual culture to be an original thinker concerning them. 
He was educated to the level of partisanship, and not to that of 
leadership in political thought. He took his doctrines ready 
formed from his teacher. He was a second and reduced edition 
of Jefferson. And it was the misfortune of his education, or 
lack of it, that he was so. 

In 1812, when thirty years of age, he was elected in a 
closely contested election, a member of the State Senate. Mr. 
Madison was now president, and the second war with England 
was just opening. Mr. Van Buren gave the force of his influ- 
ence to the support of the administration and the war. He was 
a true patriot, a genuine American in a Dutch setting. 

In 1815, at the age of thirty-three, he was elected attorney- 
general of the state of New York — a mark of respect for a 
young man which indicates an early ripeness in his profession. 



260 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

He was also elected a regent of the university. The next 
spring he was re-elected state senator for four years. This was 
about the time De Witt Clinton was projecting and urging his 
internal improvements, especially the canal through the state of 
New York, that has ever since been called " Clinton's Ditch." 
It received great opposition and was hotly denounced by many 
of the tax payers. It was the introduction to canal building 
in the country and did great service in its day in helping to 
develop the settlement and resources of the country. 

Mr. Van Buren took the side of Mr. Clinton on the internal 
improvements of the state. Afterward De Witt Clinton was 
elected governor of the state by the democratic party. Mr. Van 
Buren, in 1818, set up an opposition to the governor's adminis- 
tration, and organized what was called " The Albany Eegency," a 
sort of tammany club, or self-appointed clique, which in a few 
years got the politics of the state in its hand and held it for 
many years. It was a break in the party, occasioned by its two 
leaders, which was fierce for a considerable time. Van Buren 
won in the end and gathered pretty much the whole party 
around him. 

In February, 1821, the legislature of New York elected Mr. 
Van Buren to the Senate of the United States, when he was 
thirty-nine years of age. Mr. Van Buren's opposition to Gov- 
ernor Clinton, division of the democratic party, formation of 
the Albany Eegency, and managing it for fifteen years, got him 
the name of a politician. His enemies called him a wire- worker, 
a fox, an oily, deceptive managing man. Many regarded him 
as the impersonation of cunning. His good looks, his nice 
taste, which always dressed him like a fine gentleman, as he 
really was, his polished manners, his absolute self control, his 
suavity and courtesy, were all interpreted as evidence of his sly 
cunning and innate duplicity. Because he would not be a boor, 
many believed him to be an autocrat under the polished garb of 
a democratic gentleman. The same year that he was elected to 
the Senate, a convention was held in the state of New York to 
revise the constitution. Mr. Van Buren was a delegate to this 
convention, and was of such practical service as won the approval 



MARTIN" VAN BUREN. 261 

of all parties. He was opposed to universal suffrage ; was in 
favor of a property qualification ; was in favor of colored 
men having the right of suffrage on the same terms as white 
men. His course in this convention was so Judicious and con- 
servative, that even the federalists had no fault to find with him. 
In his work here, he showed the real quality of his mind, 
because he was not acting as a politician, but as a statesman. He 
was a man of quick and strong power, but that power, for the 
most part, was put to the service of a party, rather than to the 
broader and nobler service of the country. 

In the Senate of the United States, Mr. Van Buren was 
active and influential, advocating the abolition of imprisonment 
for debt, in actions in the United States courts, amendments to 
the Judiciary system, a general bankrupt law, a Just invest- 
ment of the money for the sales of public lands in the states 
where they were made. 

Mr. Monroe was now president. It was the "era of good 
feeling." The federal party was dead. The democratic party 
was in full power. The whig party was not yet organized. 
The old federalists were a scattered host of strong, good men, 
feeling about for some way to act together. But no great ques- 
tion had come up, around which they could rally in opposition 
to the triumphant democracy. John Quincy Adams was secre- 
tary of state, and conducting the duties of that office with great 
ability, and to the satisfaction of the federalists. Mr. Monroe 
respected the rights of the minority, and appointed many mod- 
erate federalists to office, as had been the costom thus far by 
the presidents. 

In 1835, John Quincy Adams took his seat as president. 
Mr. Van Buren opposed his election, advocating the claims of 
Andrew Jackson. Mr. Adams was a scholar, a non-partisan, a 
statesman of the largest type, outranking m ability and in 
knowledge of the world's affairs and history, any statesman in 
Europe — honest, patriotic, non-sectional, a gentleman and chris- 
tian. Andrew Jackson was his opposite in almost everything 
but integrity and patriotism. And yet, Mr. Van Buren threw 
his great influence and skill in manipulating elections, in favor 



262 OUK PRESIDENTS. 

of Andrew Jackson. Party considerations in the main actuated 
liim. Socially, intellectually and morally, his sympathies were 
with Mr. Adams. He did not comiirehend Mr. Adams on account 
of the narrowness of his studies, and the meagreness of his 
knowledge of nations, their laws, histories and developments. 
In knowledge he was nearer the level of Jackson than Adams. 
Yet- in the main, party moved him in this choice. 

After Mr. Adams became president Mr. Van Buren opposed 
his administration and began at once to shape the next cam- 
paign for Jackson. In this work he was skillful. He was 
schooled in it. In the Senate of New York he had planned and 
secured the manipulation of the party in that state, and held it 
for fifteen years. Now in the Senate of the United States he 
was doing the same work for the party of the country. He 
became chief manipulator. He was not too scholarly, nor too 
moral, nor too great-minded to enjoy this work; nor was he so 
broad a lover of his country as to feel the degradation of this 
intense partisanship. The way was making for a great change 
in the partisanship of national politics, and Mr. Van Buren was 
l^erhaps as influential in that direction as any other man. The 
change to come was expressed in the phrase: " To the victors 
belong the spoils.^' One meaning of it was, "the minority have 
no rights which the majority are bound to respect."' 

In February, 1827, Mr. Van Buren was re-elected to the 
Senate of the United States. In 1828 Governor Clinton died 
and Mr. Van Buren was chosen to fill his place, as governor of 
New York. In this position he sought to improve the finances 
of the state by recommending and urging to adoption, the 
famous funding system. But "it was a scheme of his fertile 
brain, and proved a failure. He had not studied finance, or 
political economy — was not a scholar in any of the great matters 
of political science, and of course could not recommend anything 
out of any large knowledge of the subject. His meagre mental 
furnishing was constantly showing itself. 



MAKHN VAN BUEEN. 363 



SECRETARY OF STATE. 



March 4, 1829, Andrew Jackson became president. He 
appointed Martin Van Buren to the first place in his cabinet — 
secretary of state. Jackson began at once the great partisan 
measure which had been foreshadowed., "to the victors belong 
the spoils. ^^ Federalists and opponents of all kinds were 
removed from office without cause only that they had voted 
against Jackson. He made his adminstration partisan from, 
center to circumference, and Jacksonian m its destructive vigor. 
Mr. Van Buren was one with his chief, and it may, perhaps, 
have been as much due to him as to Jackson, that these strong 
partisan measures were put into force. When Mr. Monroe was 
president and selected Mr. Adams for secretary of state, and 
retained the most of the officers of his predecessor, and apjDointed 
many moderate federalists, Andrew Jackson commended him 
for it. But now he was in a different mood. How much Van 
Buren's partisanship did to produce this different mood, of 
course is not known; but that Van Buren approved of Jackson's 
slaughter of his opponents in office, seems now clear. Two men 
of absolutely different mould had now met and worked in 
fraternal partisanship to defeat their partisan adversaries and 
reward their friends. Mr. Van Buren was a state rights 
advocate, and was professedly jealous of national power. When 
elected Senator, in his letter of acceptance, he said: " It shall be 
my constant and zealous endeavor to protect the remaining 
rights reserved to the states by the federal constitution, to restore 
those of which they have been divested by construction, and to 
promote the interest and honor of our common country." His 
main thought seemed to be to guard the rights of the states. 

The national bank, which Jackson fought and destroyed, 
and by doing so brought financial ruin to the whole country, 
was opposed chiefly because it was a national and not a state 
institution, and was in danger of becoming an overshadowing 
monopoly; it was also a federalist institution, established by 
them, who believed in a strong and stable central government. 
It must, therefore, be destroyed and the funds of the govern- 



264 OUE PRESIDENTS. 

ment be deposited in state banks. The state banks were Jack- 
son's pets and must handle the funds of the national government; 
that was democracy, he fancied. He and Mr. Van Buren were 
one in opposition to the national bank and in favor of the 
state banks, and doubtless were agreed in the vote of the 
renewal of the charter of the national bank and the removal of 
the deposits to the state banks, and were together the cause of 
the immense mischief that followed, when every state bank 
failed or suspended, business stopped, a wreck, and the govern- 
ment had to go into the markets of Europe a bankrupt, to 
borrow money to keep its machinery moving. What was national 
was suspicious to minds like theirs, fevered with the partisan- 
ship doctrines of states rights. 

While Mr. Van Buren was secretary of state there occurred 
one of those strange episodes in high life that once in a while 
shake a nation. There was a tavern-keeper in Washington by 
the name of O'Neal. When Jackson was United States senator 
he boarded at this tavern. Peggy O'Neal was a lively daughter 
who made herself so social with her father's guests- as to throw 
suspicions upon the propriety of her conduct. Miss O'Neal at 
length married a Mr. Timberlake, a purser in the United States 
navy. Major John H. Eaton, of Tennessee, Jackson's secretary 
of war, boarded at O'Neal's and was much captivated with the 
society of Mrs. Timberlake. The tongue of scandal was not 
still. Timberlake committed suicide in the Mediterranean sea; 
Eaton married his widow. Now Peggy O'Neal was the wife of 
a cabinet officer. The wives of the other members of the cabinet 
were shocked, and would not receive her into their society. 
Jackson impetuously defended Mrs. Eaton as an abused and 
innocent woman. Van Buren, without wife or daughter, was 
one of the most pliant and polite of men, and as politic as he 
was courteous. He called upon Mrs. Eaton ; treated her with 
marked attention , and made parties for her and her husband ; 
all of which was very grateful to his chief and in keeping with 
Mr. Van Buren's politic character. But the Eaton controversy 
raged for two years. The wives of foreigii ministers were drawn 
into it. Washington society was shocked and shaken by it. 



MARTIN VAN EUREJSr. 265 

The president and his cabinet and vice-president were eight ; 
four were for Mrs. Eaton, four against her. At length the 
president determined to secure harmony in his cabinet by the 
Jacksonian method of dismissing them all and appointing a new 
cabinet. This was accomplished by having those in sympathy 
with him resign and he would appoint them to other places. 
Van Buren was immediately appointed to the court of St. James. 
The others took the hint and resigned. All this redounded to 
the popularity of Van Buren. He Avas now regarded as a sort of 
political magician whose will moved cabinets and senates. 

But this was not all. This Eaton embroglio, intensified 
likes and dislikes that before existed. Van Buren had secured 
Jackson's friendship in his work for his election. He had 
pleased him in everything as a cabinet officer ; now this kind- 
ness for the traduced and charming Mrs. Eaton had won his 
heart. Henceforth he loved Van Buren ; and Jackson's love 
was a great volcanic fire that ceased not to flow from its deep 
sources. On the other hand, Calhoun had labored for Crawford 
in the campaign ; had not given him great pleasure in the cab- 
inet ; and had taken bitter ground against Mrs. Eaton, and 
greatly embittered the president against him. This bitterness 
followed Calhoun as much as the jiresident's love followed and 
rewarded Van Buren. Jackson's opposition to Calhoun for his 
nullification of the tariff laws, in his next term, had in it not a 
little of the spite of the Eaton controversy. He probably never 
ceased to regret that he did not get the chance to "hang Cal- 
houn high as Haman." "^ 

Mr. Van Buren met a triumphant reception in New York, 
and sailed very soon for England. He was cordially received in 
England. His courtly manners, great personal beauty, and dis- 
tinguished position in his own country, were at once recognized, 
and he was received with honor. 

But when Congress met in the winter, it refused to approve 
his appointment. Calhoun, Clay and Webster opposed him 
bitterly, "accusing him of such a spirit of narrow partisanship 
as to unfit him to be the representative of the Avhole country." 
He was acused of being "the originator of the system of remov- 



266 OUK PKESIDENTS. 

ing from office every incumbent, however able and faithful, who 
did not advocate the princi2:)les of the party in power." 

Mr, Van Buren's rejection by the Senate, it was supposed by 
some, would operate against his popularity. Mr. Calhoun, who 
most bitterly hated him, said triumphantly: "It will kill him, 
sir, — kill him dead. He will never kick, sir, — never kick." 
But Jackson's mighty energy was roused in his behalf, and he 
determined to do everything in his power to elevate him. 

VICE-PEESIDENT VAN" BUREN. 

March 4, 1833, Jackson was re-elected president and Martin 
Van Buren vice-president. This made him president of the 
Senate. It was a stormy administration, with a strong and 
determined opposition from the Senate. 

The president's destruction of the United States bank, and 
removal of the funds of the government to the state banks, so 
paralyzed the monetary affairs of the country as to alarm busi- 
ness, awaken distrust, and put a stop to all development of 
resources. 

This made the opposition fiercer and the party contests more 
bitter. This was the condition of the country when Jackson 
retired to the Hermitage, and Van Buren came to be inaugurated 
in his place. 

PEESIDENT VAli BUREST. 

On the fourth of March, 1837, Mr. Van Buren ^was inaugu- 
rated President of the United States. This was a result greatly 
desired by his great predecessor. Jackson had set his heart on 
this; partly because he loved him, partly because Calhoun hated 
him, whom he would like to have hanged for his nullification. 

"Leaving New York out of the canvass," says Mr. Parton, 
"the election of Mr. Van Buren to the presidency was as much 
the act of General Jackson as though the constitution had con- 
ferred upon him the power to appoint a successor." 

Mr. Van Buren selected John Forsyth, of Georgia, secretary 
of state ; Levi "Woodbury, of New Hampsliire, secretary of the 
treasury; Joel R. Poinsett, of South Carolina, secretary of war; 



MARTIK VAN BUBEN. 267 

Mahlon Dickerson, of New Jersey, secretary of the navy; Amos 
Kendall, of Kentucky, pastmaster-general, and Benjaman F. 
Butler, of New York, attorney-general. They were all, but Mr. 
Poinsett, in the cabinet under Jackson. Mr. Van Buren started 
out with the announcement that he should "^follow in the foot- 
steps of his illustrious predecessor." The country, therefore, 
had no right to expect any change in the policy of the goverment. 
The fruits of Jackson's administration must be reaped in Van 
Buren's also, and in greater abundance. The stagnation of 
business which had already become general and alarming, would 
be sure to become greater on the announcement of no change in 
the policy of the gOAcrnment. And so it proved. Early in 
May the pressure on the banks became so great that they were 
obliged to suspend specie jiayments. On the sixteenth of May 
the legislature of New York authorized the suspension of specie 
payments for one year. There had then been two months of 
unparalleled financial embarrassment in the whole country. It 
followed right on after Mr. Van Buren's inauguration. Failure 
followed failure in rapid succession. Two hundred and fifty 
houses failed in New York city in three weeks. Business was at 
a stand still in all the cities. Property fell rapidly in value ; 
men were idle; suffering was extensive ; complaints were bitter 
against Jackson and his successor. Petitions poured in upon the 
president, praying that the circulars issued by Jackson requir- 
ing that the payments for public lands should be made in gold 
or silver, should be rescinded. They asked also that he would 
not commence suits on unpaid bonds; and also that he would 
call an extra session of Congress. He hesitated for some time, 
but the pressure became so great that he at length called a 
meeting of Congress for the first Monday in September. 

The session lasted forty days. The democrats held the 
majority of both Houses, but not all of them agreed with the 
president's policy. Some voted with the whigs, and defeated 
the independent treasury scheme of the president. The pay- 
ment of a fourth installment to the states was postponed. Ten 
millions of dollars of treasury notes were authorized. The inde- 
pendent treasury scheme was defeated again in the regular 



268 OUE PRESIDENTS. 

session of Congress the next winter; but near the close of his 
term of office it became a law. Its object was to divorce the 
government from all connection with banks, and to do all 
government business with gold and silver. The financial policy 
of Jackson and Van Buren grew out of a prejudice against the 
United States bank as a federal and national institution as 
against state institutions. That prejudice at length extended 
to all banks, and resulted in the independent treasury scheme. 
It was one of the heaviest blows on the prosperity of the coun- 
try that it has ever had. Business floundered for years in a 
stagnant sea. The hard-money craze captured the yeomanry of 
the country, whose small trading could be readily done with 
gold and silver; but it was a heavy burden on large transactions, 
and crippled the country for a generation. The two adminis- 
trations that were so much alike in policy as to be one, Jack- 
son's and Van Buren's, were narrow and hindering to the 
prosperity of the country, for lack of breadth of understanding 
and thorough knowledge of the subject of finance, on which 
they assumed to be wise. 

The state currency, upon which they threw the country, was 
always weak and fickle, and their course made us a nation 
without a national currency. 

To add to the discontent of Van Buren's term, the Seminole 
Avar in Florida continued to draw great sums from the treasury; 
the northeastern boundary question threatened a war with 
England, and the slavery question took on a more threatening 
aspect in the House and all over the country. A resolution was 
passed laying all petitions on the subject on the table without 
reading, Avhich led to John Quincy Adams' stout and long 
defense of the right of petition. Threats of a dissolution of the 
Union became common, especially where nullification had sown 
its seeds of discontent. 

An act was passed in Van Buren's term giving settlers on 
public lands the first right of purchase, which was just and 
encouraging to western settlement. 

Mr. Van Buren's last message gloried in the independent 
treasury, and in a country ''without a national debt or a national 



MARTIN VAN" BUREN. 269 

bank." In this message he recommended the enactment of 
more stringent laws for the breaking up of the African shive 
trade. 

But a new election was coming. The opposition had become 
intense, and was early in the field. The old federalists, with 
large numbers of disaffected from the banks and business, and 
intelligence of the country, had grown into the organized whig 
party. In every part of the country the strong opposition was 
alert. It charged the administration with every extravagance 
and corruption, with indifference to the laboring masses, with 
neglect of the country's good. Van Buren was called an auto- 
crat eating with gold spoons, a fox, a monster of selfishness. 
Even his virtues were perverted into vices. The canvass was 
fierce and universal. On the fourth of December, 1839, the 
whig party nominated William Henry Harrison for president 
and John Tyler for vice-president. The democratic party, on 
the fifth of May, 1840, nominated Van Buren. The whigs 
had five months the start which they improved in thorough 
organization and in rousing the whole opposition force into 
intense activity. The canvass was made a memorable one by the 
''log cabins" that were everywhere paraded as symbols of Har- 
rison's humble origin, and the songs of "Tii^pecanoe and Tyler 
too," which recited the story of his famous Indian battle and 
victory. Monster meetings were addressed by inflamed orators; 
banners, badges, bonfires, songs, processions, torchlights, were 
everywhere in vogue to stir the masses and intensify the opposi- 
tion. It was a desperate canvass, as though a monster had got 
the country by the throat and he must be struck off by a tre- 
mendous blow at the ballot box. And the blow came. Van 
Buren received only sixty electoral votes and Harrison two 
hundred and thirty-four. It was the rising of an ill-governed 
country to shake off the incompetent governors. 

In 1844 Mr. Van Buren was again urged upon the demo- 
cratic convention as its candidate ; but he was rejected because 
he was opposed to the annexation of Texas to extend the realm 
of slavery, which had been an object arranged for for many 
years by the supporters of that institution. 



270 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

In 1848, when the leaders of the party avowed themselves 
ready to tolerate slavery in New Mexico, not satisfied with the 
area of Texas for that institution, Mr. Van Baron and a portion 
of the party set up as the free democracy, and held a convention 
at Utica, at which he was nominated for president. Another 
convention was held at Buffalo, August 9, and Charles Fran- 
cis Adams was nominated for vice-president. This convention 
declared that ''Congress had no more power to make a slave 
than it had to make a king," and that "it is the duty of the 
federal government to relieve itself from all responsibility for 
the existence, or continuance of slavery wherever the govern- 
ment possesses constitutional authority to legislate on that sub- 
ject, and is thus responsible for its existence." Mr. Van Buren 
gave full assent to these anti-slavery principles. But General 
Taylor, the regular candidate, was elected. 

After this election, Mr. Van Buren lived quietly and elegantly 
at Kinderhook, in the enjoyment of a refined and placid old age. 
He traveled two years in Europe, enjoyed much society of the 
wise and good. On the outbreak of the civil war he was strongly 
for the government. He wrote a work entitled, "An Inquiry 
into the Origin and Course of Political Parties in the United 
States," which was edited by his son in 1867. He died July 24, 
1862, at the age of eighty. 

Few public men have been more misunderstood, than Martin 
Van Buren. He lived in a critical period of his country's his- 
tory, just as it was passing out of the revolutionary era when its 
fortunes were managed by the great men who were the glory of 
that era, and into the era of popular conceit when a rough fron- 
tiersman was counted a magician of political wisdom, and when 
learning, civil experience and large knowledge of law, govern- 
ment and history, were held of secondary importance. He him- 
self fell into this error Avhen a boy, and had the misfortune to 
have no friend to counsel him, to educate himself before he 
entered upon the large affairs of public life. In this state of 
mind he early followed the erratic leadings of erratic minds, and 
drifted helpless into a sea he found it hard to navigate. He 
was accused of art, deceit, the wily legerdemain, of the heartless 



MARTIN VAN BUREN. 271 

and ambitious politician, and yet was honest in intention, and 
sought to serve his counti-y well. He had a just pride of char- 
acter and conduct; was singularly self-possessed, and was a 
gentleman everywhere and always, but did not see the high 
moralities of thought and statesmanship which alone give glory 
to a public career. 

Mr. Forsyth, his secretary of state, made this estimate of 
him: ''I have never witnessed aught in Mr. Van Buren which 
requires concealment, palliation or coloring; never anything to 
lessen his character as a patriot or a man; nothing that he 
might not desire to expose to the scrutiny of every member of 
this body, with a calm confidence of unsullied integrity. He is 
called an artful man, a giant of artifice, a wily magician. Those 
ignorant of his unrivaled knowledge of human character, his 
power of penetrating into the designs and defeating the purposes 
of his adversaries, seeing his rapid advance to power and public 
confidence, impute to art what is the natural result of those 
simple causes. Extraordinary talent; untiring industry; inces- 
sant vigilance; the happiest temper, which success cannot cor- 
rupt, nor disappointment sour, — these are the sources of his 
unexampled success, the magic arts, the artifices of intrigue, to 
which he has resorted in his eventful life. Those who envy his 
success may learn wisdom from his example." 



^f HE i^RAVE OF jlARTIN IAN lUREN. 

Martin Van Buren was born, lived and died at Kinderhook, 
Columbia county. New York. And there reposes what was 
mortal of him. The graveyard at the northern end of the vil- 
lage is filled with tenants. The Van Buren lot is at the north- 
east corner of the yard. It is crowded with graves; is unfenced; 
is even without boundary marks; is flowerless and shrubless. 
The president's grave is in the center of the lot. Over it is a 



373 



OUR PRESIDENTS. 



plain granite monument fifteen feet high. Half way uj) on one 
side is this inscrij)tion : 

SlllllllllilllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllJIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII.IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllB 

I '^^xiin "H^^an '^uxzn, | 

I Eighth President op the United States. § 

I . Born December 5, 1782, i 

I Died July 24, 1862. | 

Biiiiiiiiiiiliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.iiiiiiia 

Immediately under this is that of his wife: 



l^atxtxaTi '^art '^uxzu, 

HIS WIPE. 

Born March 3, 1783, 

Died at Albany, New York, 

February 3, 1819. 



Mr. Van Buren had three sons, the remains of one rest with 
him; the rest elsewhere. His parents and brother Lawrence 
were buried here. 

Two nieces, daughters of Lawrence, were all of the family 
that lived there some few years ago. 



<C~. 



—o — 'HZ.. 



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ENGRAVED CXPREESSL,- FOR WEAVERS " LIV ES AMD GRAV 



aiiliiiDiiliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiriiiiiniiitiiiiililiiimiiii;!'! 




iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiililiiililiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii 



■iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMililililiiililililililiiii'iiiiiiiiiiia 



CHAPTER X. 



WILLIAM HEKEY HAEEISOS. 

Ninth President op the United States. 




ANCESTRY. 

N the opening life of William Henry Harrison, we are 
carried back to Virginia, mother of presidents, nursery 
of freedom and the revolution, home of great men and 
great deeds; we mingle again with the Washingtons, the 
Eandolphs, the Lees, the Masons, Marshalls, Henrys, 
Wythes, Jeffersons, Madisons and Monroes, and their great 
compatriots; we see again that rich and picturesque land, 
rivered with the Potomac, the James, the Shenandoah and the 
Eapidan, washed by Atlantic tides and overlooked by the peaks 
of the Blue Ridge — land of sunshine and fruitfulness, which 
will ever hold a great place in American history because of its 
production of so many great men. 

The father of William Henry was Benjamin Harrison, of 
Virginia, associate of the great patriots of the revolution. He 
was in comparatively opulent circumstances; was an intimate 
friend of Washington; was among the first in Virginia to resist 
the oppressions of England; was a member of the Continental 
Congress, and was three times governor of Virginia. When in 
Congress he was chosen to preside over that body, but in defer- 
ence to Massachusetts and John Hancock, from that state, he 
declined; and seeing that Mr. Hancock, who was a small man, 
while Harrison was very large, strong, and full of fun, modestly 
18 273 



274 OUR PRESIDEXfS. 

hesitated, he caught him in his arms, carried liim to the 
speaker's chair and placed him in it, amid roars of hiugliter 
from the members; then turning round, his honest, ruddy face 
beaming with merriment, he said : " Gentlemen, we will show 
Mother Britain how little we care for her by making a Massa- 
chusetts man our president, whom she has excluded from 
pardon by a public proclamation." 

Mr. Harrison always saw the ludicrous side of things, and 
often had his joke over serious matters. He was a signer of the 
Declaration of Independence. It was solemn work, in the face 
of British power, for the colonists to put their names to their 
own death-warrant, if they failed to maintain their independ- 
ence. They realized it all, and opened that solemn work with 
prayer. While the signing was going on, Mr. Harrison turned 
to Elbridge Gerry, who was a small, fragile man, and said: 
" Gerry, when the hanging comes I shall have the advantage. 
You'll kick in the air half an hour after it is all over with me." 

This was the father of the ninth president, a brave, hearty, 
magnificent man, loyal, loving, and overflowing with good- 
humor. 

BIRTH AND YOUTH. 

William Henry was the third and youngest son of this brave 
Virginia patriot. He was born at Berkeley, on the banks of 
the James river, February 9, 1773. His early education was 
got in the schools of Virginia, but no small part of it came to 
him unconsciously from his family associations — from tlie men 
of the revolution whom he knew and heard talk of the times 
and men that gave being to the nation. The air of Virginia 
was alive with patriotism. He was born three years before the 
Declaration of Independence. He was ten years old when 
Cornwallis surrendered to Washington near his home, and 
remembered well the rejoicings when peace was declared. He 
was fourteen when the convention met to form the constitution; 
was sixteen when Washington was inaugurated president, and 
twenty when he entered upon his second term. He was the 
child of that great era. His mind fed on its great deeds, and 



WILLIAM HENRY HAERISON. 275 

his sonl drank in its spirit. IIo Avas educated on patriotism, 
liberty and martial valor. The sj^eeches, messages, constitu- 
tions and laws of his time were his youthful studies. His youth 
was the constitution era of the young country. The principles 
of civil liberty and law were the talk of the men and youth about 
him. It was the organizing era of nationality. To live then 
was to be in a great school. It was especially so to active and 
aspiring minds like young Harrison's. They were taken out of 
tliemsclves and made public-spirited. Selfishness was made 
subservient to the great interests of society. To live for the 
general good was the great and manly ambition. Boys that 
otherwise would grovel, were made aspiring. It was a magnifi- 
cent age to live in, and blessed were the youth who were born to 
an education in those principle-discussing and state-making 
times. Mean and sordid living was not in fasliion. Effeminacy 
had no place. Courage, stalwartness, generosity, large-minded- 
ness, were the qualities of manly virtue. A son of the times 
was William Henry Harrison, 

His father died m 1791, when he was eighteen. He was left 
under the guardianship of Eobert Morris, the distinguished 
financier. He entered and graduated from Hampden Sidney 
college. So, to the educating and enlarging influences of the 
times, he added a course of liberal study. He did not cheat his 
mind to serve his pocket; did not give to youthful frivolity the 
time that manly culture demands. The youthful years were 
ripened in the college classes. His good endowments were quick- 
ened by the added strength of tlie athletic discipline of academic 
study. He carried no boy's mind into a man's place; but with 
furnished powers, ripened and energized by the training of the 
schools, he entered upon a man's course a man indeed, with a 
man's breadth of mind and strength of action. 

OPENING .MANHOOD. 

During his course of study young Harrison had concluded to 
study medicine and make its practice his profession. He went 
to Philadelphia to study with Doctor Eush, who was a friend of 



276 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

his father and a signer with him of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence. It does not appear how long he remained with Doctor 
Eush, but it could not have been long, for before he was twenty- 
one he was westward bound, as a soldier to defend the frontier 
against the murderous Indians. His guardian and his friends 
generally tried to dissuade him from it. He consulted with 
Washington, who approved it, who secured for him a commission 
of ensign. AVashington was greatly interested in the settlement 
of the west and knew how needful it was to have an army to 
defend the settlements against the savages; and also what 
opportunities were open to the youth of the country in that great 
field of enterprise. With Washington's approval he turned 
his young face, not yet twenty-one, toward the setting sun. 

Many considerations doubtless entered into his resolution to 
go as a soldier into the new west. 

When he was eighteen years old he became a member of an 
abolition society at Richmond, Virginia, the object of which 
was to ameliorate the condition of the slaves and secure their 
freedom by all legal means. In speaking of this later in life, 
he said: "From my earliest youth and to the present moment, 
I have been an ardent friend of human liberty. The obliga- 
tions which I then came under I have faithfully performed. I 
have been the means of liberating many slaves, but never placed 
one in bondage. I was the first person to introduce into Con- 
gress the proposition that all the country above Missouri should 
never have slavery admitted into it." He could see that 
slavery was entrenched in Virginia, and it might be long before 
it would be abolished. It troubled his conscience and his heart. 
It would be better to go away from it at once into a free terri- 
tory and there help build up a free community. 

Again his young blood was patriotic; he lived in stirring 
times; he was ambitious to serve a country the birth of which 
he had seen; why settle down to the humdrum practice of medi- 
cine when the great west was calling for soldiers and settlers? 
Washington began as a soldier, why should not he? There was 
great suffering in the west, there was need of soldiers to defend 
the settlements. So he went — went a soldier boy. 



WILLIAM HENKY HARKISOIf. 277 

At this time lie was tall, slender, fragile. His friends feared 
he would not be equal to the hardships of campaign life in an 
Indian war. Some had anxiety lest he would not be able to get 
there. It was autumn; but nothing daunted, he started and 
crossed the country and mountains on foot to what is now Pitts- 
burgh, and thence down the Ohio river to Fort Washington, 
located where Cincinnati is now situated. 

General St. Clair had a considerable military force at Fort 
Washington, and had charge of the army on the frontier. 

A little while before Harrison started on his mission into the 
wilderness. General St. Clair had made a western movement 
with fourteen hundred men to rout the Indians from along the 
Wabash river. Near the headwaters of that river, he was 
attacked by a large body of Indians, who gave a desperate battle 
and utterly routed him, killing five hundred and thirty and 
wounding three hundred and sixty of his men. Almost two 
thirds of his men were killed or wounded. 

Very soon after reaching the fort, Harrison was assigned to 
the duty of leading a pack-horse train of supplies to Fort Ham- 
ilton, twenty-five or thirty miles north, on the Miami river. It 
was a perilous undertaking, for the skulking foe was nearly 
omnipresent, and if met, the pack-horses would be at his mercy, 
as well as the few men with them. The young officer performed 
so well his duty as to get the special approval of General St. 
Clair. 

The delicate and boy-like face and appearance of the new 
soldier who had come from Virginia with a commission from 
Washington, attracted attention from all who met him. After 
his return from Fort Hamilton, an old frontiersman said of him: 
"1 would as soon have thought of putting my Avife into the ser- 
vice as this boy ; but I have been out with him, and find those 
smooth cheeks are on a wise head and that slight frame is almost 
as tough as my own weather-beaten carcass." 

It was not long before the young ensign was promoted to the 
rank of lieutenant. Very soon after he joined the army of Gen- 
eral Wayne, who had been sent to prosecute more vigorously 
this war with the Indians. General Wayne had a brilliant revo- 



278 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

lutionary record, and had won the title of "Mad Anthony" by 
his impetuous and fearless assaults on the enemy. 

It is to be remembered that this was not long after the revo- 
lutionary war, and that during that war the British had armed 
the Indians as far as they could, and sought to incite them 
against the American settlers ; and that this Indian war was a 
kind of lingering result of the revolutionary war. At this time 
the Indians had become very widely aroused, and had deter- 
mined to beat back the tide of settlement and retain the terri- 
tory which is now Ohio, as hunting ground for their children. 

Lieutenant Harrison soon saw the evil results of intemper- 
ance in the army — that it was even worse than in civil society, 
as the soldiers were without the restraints of home, regular 
employment and religious influence. He believed in temperance 
as a jiersonal virtue and a cardinal principle of morality ; but in 
the army he saw it was important as an example, and especially 
in an officer, so he adoi:)ted high temperance principles, and 
sought in all legitimate ways to inculcate temperance habits 
among the soldiers. He was not yet twenty-one, and he was 
13rincij)led against slavery and intemperance, and an ardent 
patriot and a friend of humanity, having cast himself into the 
great army of settlement that was moving on for human 
advancement. He had also given his adherence to the cause of 
education by a thorough collegiate course of study. This Avas 
an equipment for the soldiership of life, that made a fine promise 
for young Harrison^s future. Here was a foundation for a noble 
manhood. 

On the twenty-eighth of November, 1792, with an army of 
about three thousand men. General Wayne went down the Ohio 
river from Pittsburgh, about twenty-two miles, and encamped for 
the winter. The next spring he transported his army in boats 
down to Fort AVashington. Here Lieutenant Harrison joined 
"The Legion," as General Wayne's army was called. 

Several months passed in waiting for supplies, so that tlie 
army was not ready to move till autinnii. In October a move- 
ment was made north about eighty miles, to a place which the 
army called Greenville. Here an encamjoment was made for the 



WILLIAM HENIIY HAllRISON. 379 

winter. About twenty miles north of this was the disastrous 
battle ground of General St. Clair with the Indians. A strong 
detachment was sent to possess that ground, bury the remains, 
and build there a fort, which they called Fort Recovery. In 
this enterprise Lieutenant Harrison rendered such conspicuous 
service as to secure the especial notice of his general. 

In the s]3ring the Indians attacked the fort with great reso- 
lution, and were beaten back time after time. General Wayne's 
army had now been in the territory some fifteen months, and 
had advanced into the heart of their country. Tliey knew him 
as a warrior who fought every time for victory. They had had 
time to gather their best forces, and they attacked with a view to 
demolish his army as they had that of St. Clair on the same 
spot, and drive him from their hunting grounds. But he was 
prepared for them, terribly punished their temerity and drove 
them far into the wilderness. He then advanced with his whole 
army some sixty miles north to the junction of the Auglaize and 
Maumee rivers, where he constructed a fort. Having thus a 
base of operations on the Maumee, he moved down the river to 
meet his wily foe somewhere in ambush. Moving cautiously as 
they went, not to be ensnared, on the twentieth of August he met 
some two thousand chosen Indian warriors ambushed for his 
reception at a place of their own choosing. A desperate battle 
followed; but the fierce men of the woods were worsted with great 
losses and driven still farther to the northwest by the more 
enlightened invaders of their territory. It was the old result 
over again — intelligence winning the victory over ignorance — 
civilization bearing down triumphantly upon barbarism — the 
old and effete passing away before the new and vigorous. Gen- 
eral Wayne was hundreds of miles in the wilderness, away from 
reinforcements and supplies ; still pushing on from these 
essentials of support, in a country he had never seen and of 
which he had no knowledge. His savage adversary was at 
home and in the midst of his supplies, and could muster more 
men, and yet he could only fly before the more intelligent 
invaders. 

In these frontier battles Lieutenant Harrison was one of 



280 OUR PKESIDENTS. 

General Wayne's most active and efficient officers. Quick, 
active, brave and discreet, he could serve equally well in any 
place — he could lead an assault, strengthen a weak place, draw 
in an exposed regiment, or follow into the wilderness the routed 
foe. His educated mind and intense spirit fitted him to serve 
such a leader as Anthony Wayne. For his excellent military 
conduct in this campaign, Lieutenant Harrison was promoted to 
a captaincy, and given the command of Fort Washington. 
About this time the British military posts of the northwest fell 
into the hands of our government, and it became Captain Har- 
rison's duty to receive, occupy and supply them. While engaged 
in this duty, he married the daughter of John Cleaves Symmes, 
the founder of the Miami settlements, whose land covered a 
portion of the present site of Cincinnati. 

In April, 1798, Captain Harrison resigned his place in the 
army to receive the appointment of secretary of the north- 
western territory, made vacant by the removal of Winthrop 
Sargent to the office of governor of the southwestern country. 
The next year Secretary Harrison was chosen the one delegate 
to represent the northwestern territory in Congress. 

Up to this time the land in this great territory was subject 
to a law which allowed of its disposal only in tracts of four 
thousand acres. Mr. Harrison exerted himself, against much 
opposition, to get this law changed so as to bring the public 
lands within the purchasing power of small farmers. 

There was, from the beginning, two ideas of agricultural 
life in this country — the Virginia idea of great landed estates, 
brought from England and applied to this country with a view 
to build up great and influential families, like those in aristo- 
cratic society in England, which were supposed to constitute 
the strength and stability of a nation, and the New England 
idea of small farms, which grew out of the necessities of a 
poorer people. Mr. Harrison had learned that the latter idea 
applied more generally to those who desired to be actual settlers 
on the new lands of the northwest, and secured the passage of 
a law which authorized the sale of the public lands in alternate 
gectious of six hundred and forty and three hundred and twenty 



WILLIAM HENEY HARRISON. 281 

acres. This was not all he desired, but it was the most he 
could get, and was the beginning of that true idea, as applied 
to the public lands, for a great and free country, of having the 
people own and cultivate their own lands. 

GOVERNOR HARRISON". 

In the year 1800 the northwestern territory was divided, the 
territory of the present state of Ohio being made one, and the 
western portion, which now constitutes Indiana, Illinois and 
Wisconsin, being the other, which was called "The Indian 
Territory," and Secretary Harrison was made governor of this 
latter territory. As governor, he was made superintendent of 
Indian affairs. His area of authority was soon enlarged by his 
being appointed governor of upper Louisiana. In these great 
territories he had almost absolute authority. He was first 
appointed to these important trusts when he was twenty-seven 
years old by President John Adams. He was afterward reap- 
pointed twice by Thomas Jefferson, and again by James Madi- 
son; so that he held those offices through three administrations. 
Those were the times when "rotation in office" had not been 
learned, and merit held its well-earned place in public affairs. 

When Governor Harrison began his administration there 
were but three white settlements in the Indian territory. But 
they soon began to increase, and now the wilderness over which 
he presided is an empire of civilization. His subjects were 
chiefly Indians, who claimed ownership in their tribal relations 
of the most of the land. During his official career as governor, 
he made thirteen treaties with the Indians, and secured to the 
United States sixty millions of acres of land. He thus became 
the pioneer of possession and civilization. 

In the revolutionary war the early settlements along the 
Atlantic coast became free, and afterward organized into the 
United States. Then began the process of acquisition and 
extension, which has made them the mighty nation they now 
are, and which is to go on, it may be, till North America shall 
be the area of their territory. In this process, no man has 
^cted a more conspicuous and important part than William 



282 OUR PEESIDENTS. 

Henry Harrison, or left a whiter or more manly and patriotic 
record. Though governor over sixty millions of acres of j)nblic 
lands, making purchases and disposals at will, he appropriated 
no lands to himself, made his office in no way lucrative to him- 
self, but only serviceable to the enrichment and honor of his 
country and its people. In all his treaties with the Indians, he 
was sole commissioner, as absolute as any king or autocrat, and 
yet so deep was the confidence imposed in him, that the thought 
of anything wrong in his transactions seems not to have entered 
any mind connected with the government. No pages of our 
national history are whiter than those which record the life and 
deeds of Governor Harrison. 

One man, and he a foreigner, a man of wealth, by the name 
of Mcintosh, accused the governor of having defrauded the 
Indians in the treaty of Fort Wayne. The governor demanded 
an investigation in a court of justice; and the court not only did 
not find against the governor, but fined the complainant four 
thousand dollars. The four thousand dollars the governor 
divided, giving one third of it to the orphan children whose 
fathers had died in battle, and two thirds he returned to Mc- 
intosh himself to teach him how to be both just and magnani- 
mous. 

Through the whole of his career as governor, opportunities 
for improvement of his personal fortune occurred, but he always 
rejected them, because he would not have the semblance of 
using his official opportunity to enrich himself appear to the 
discredit of himself or his country. He had a fine sense of 
honor and patriotic integrity. In his official capacity he lived 
for his country and was his country. His acts and character 
were his country's, and so he guarded his conduct as the apple 
of his eye. 

THE TECUMSEH WAR. 

A singular and tragic episode in Governor Harrison's career 
occurred, beginning about the year 1806. 

The Indians had become comparatively peaceful, and many 
of them were adopting many of the ideas and practices of civilised 



WILLIAM HEXRY IIAIUIISON. 283 

life, when there arose two brothers among them of unusual 
ability and devotion to the ancient Indian customs. One of 
them was a chief and warrior of great sagacity and enterprise, 
who conceived the idea of not only putting a stop to the civiliz- 
ing of his race which had so clearly begun, but of restoring 
them to their original estate. He hated the whites; lie deplored 
their influence over his people; and saw the inevitable loss of 
all their hunting grounds to the Indians, and their style of life. 
He was a savage, and wanted to continue to be, and have all his 
tribes with him continue as they had been. His name was 
Tecumseh, or "The Crouching Panther." 

He had a brother of equal ability and of equal devotedness 
to Indian life and history, who was a man of fervid imagination, 
a religious man, a great orator who held a powerful sway over 
his people by his great gifts; and being their medicine man, 
which in their idea was equivalent to being a magician, he had 
still greater influence over them. His name was Olliwacheca, 
which being interpreted, is "The Prophet." The brothers were 
in as thorough sympathy as were Moses and Aaron and bore a 
similar relation to each other. They conceived the idea of 
being the deliverers of their people from their subjection to the 
whites. 

They began their career by preaching to the tribes immedi- 
ately about them, their doctrines of fidelity to ancient Indian 
customs and resistance of the customs of the whites — especially 
the custom of drinking whisky. Olliwacheca was a fierce teeto- 
taler, and harangued his people eloquently in its favor, so 
much so that all who came under his influence became teeto- 
talers and rejected whisky as the fire-water of the Evil Spirit. 
But they did not stop with this, but secretly aroused them to 
prepare for desperate resistance. It was Tecumseh's plan to 
arouse and'^ unite all the Indian tribes far and near, to form a 
great army of resistance, and to use all the methods of Indian 
warfare to beat back the encroachments of their white enemies. 
To this end the two brothers visited and preached and planned 
that they might inaugurate their great movement with such 



284 OUK PKESIDENTS. 

force as should strike alarm to all the white frontier settle- 
ments, for some years. 

In the summer of 1808, Olliwacheca gathered an encamp- 
ment on the banks of the Tippecanoe river, a tributary of the 
Wabash. To deceive the government as to their plans, the 
prophet projDosed to visit the governor and make a speech to 
him, and hold some of his religious meetings in his presence. 
He came, with a large number of his devoted followers. He 
delivered his speech, and made frequent addresses to his associ- 
ates on the evils of war and whisky drinking. He had so 
thoroughly indoctrinated them against whisky, that no persua- 
sion could induce them to drink. Eumors increased among the 
whites, that the Indians were preparing for war. Anxious to 
know the exact facts about their movement. Governor Harrison 
sent for both Tecumseh and the pix)phet to visit him. Tecum- 
seh visited Vincennes, at length, to pay his respects to the gov- 
ernor. He went with four hundred plumed and painted war- 
riors, and held a council on the twelfth of August, 1809. The 
governor had not invited such an army, and was not prepared to 
make an equal demonstration. He gathered the judges of the 
court, a few army officers, a number of citizens, and a small 
body guard, consisting of a sergeant and twelve men, and cheer- 
fully met the savage chief and his warriors, as though they had 
come on the most peaceful of missions. When the high cer- 
emonies brought the time, Tecumseh affirmed, in a dignified 
speech, his peaceful intentions ; but declared that he pro]30sed 
to combine all the tribes, to stop the further encroachments of 
the whites ; that no more land should be sold to them without 
the consent of all the tribes ; and that the chiefs who had lately 
sold land to the United States, should be put to death. 

The governor, in his reply, remonstrated strongly against the 
murder of the chiefs. Tecumseh interrupting him in angry 
tones and threatening gestures, accused him of having cheated 
the Indians. The warriors, who had been squatted on the 
ground, caught the spirit, rose up and brandished their clubs. 
The governor drew his sword. The army officers drew around 
him ; the guard presented their arms ready to fire. The gov- 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISOK 285 

ernor calmly ordered all to be quiet. Then, turning to Tecum- 
seh, told him he should hold no further intercourse with him, 
but to go in peace from their council-fire. The chief and his 
warriors retired'; but from this time the governor knew that 
tliere was fire in the forests and danger ahead. 

That night, the militia of Vincennes was under arms, expect- 
ing every moment the bullet in the dark, and the howl of the 
savage. But the night passed in quiet. 

The next morning Tecumseh called upon the governor, 
apologized for his hasty conduct the day before, and repeated 
his statement of no hostile intentions; yet he was firm in his 
purpose to oppose any further transfer of land without the con- 
sent of all the tribes; and he now affirmed that he and his fellow 
chiefs would hold as null and void the treaty which the governor 
had lately made at Fort Wayne with a few chiefs. 

A short time after this Governor Harrison resolved to visit 
Tecumseh at his encampment on the Tippecanoe. He was 
politely received, and was informed in courteous language that 
the Indians were very unwilling to go to war with the United 
States; but were resolved that the recently ceded land should 
not be given up; and that no further treaties should be made 
without the consent of all the tribes. 

No further intercourse was held over the matter. The chief 
and the prophet were out among the tribes holding meetings 
and consulting. In the meantime the awakened Indians of the 
baser sort were committing dejDredations on the settlers, in the 
way of stealing horses and stock, breaking into houses and law- 
lessly plundering the farms, and annoying the white people in 
many ways. Affairs were growing worse, indicating the 
aj)proach of a border war. The people were everywhere anxious 
and alarmed. 

In this state of things the governor resolved to visit again 
the prophet at his encampment on the Tippecanoe. Tecumseh 
had gone south to visit and consult with the tribes in that part 
of the country. It was decided that the governor should go 
with force enough to secure his own safety, and at the same 
time overawe the savages somewhat, with a view to preventing 



286 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

hostilities. Nearly a, thousand troops were gathered and put in 
marching order for this visit. This little army, as the gov- 
ernor's escort, moved out from Vincennes on the twenty-eighth of 
October, 1812, It was accidental, apparently, but this was the 
year war was declared with England. This Indian disturbance 
had been fermenting about as long as that with England. And 
this seemed to be independent of that. 

The movement of the army was cautious, being always ready 
to form instantly into a line of attack or a solid body of defense. 
It moved along an Indian trail, in two lines of march, near 
enough to come quickly together if attacked. Early in Novem- 
ber the governor and his escort reached the valley of the Tij)pe- 
canoe. Very soon after they began to observe bands of Indians 
prowling about at a distance. When the army had reached 
within three miles of the town, three Indians of rank made 
their apjoearance and inquired why the governor was approach- 
ing their town in such hostile array? After a short conference, 
arrangements were made for a council-fire on the next day to 
agree on terms of amity and peace. 

The governor was too well acquainted with the Indian char- 
acter to take this as any indication of what they intended to do; 
so he made every provision for a night attack. His little army 
was formed into a solid body, the dragoons in the center. Every 
man was ordered to sleep on his arms if he slept at all; and 
every direction was given, as to their action in case of an attack. 

The wakeful governor rose between three and four o'clock in the 
morning, and was sitting by the embers of the last night's fire, 
talking low with his aides. It was a dark, cold, cloudy, almost 
rainy morning. Just then the Indians in force had crept close 
to them, and with a yell and war-wlioop fierce enough to rend 
the forest with dismay, poured into them a volley of bullets, and 
kept up their work of death and alarm. But the camp-fires, 
which had served to light the savages to their prey, were at once 
put out, and then Harrison's men rose and stood in their tracks 
and poured an incessant fire into the places where flashed the 
Indian guns. As soon as it was light enough to see to move, 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISOiir, 287 

they made a simultaneous charge into the woods and among the 
Indians and made fearful slaughter in their midst. 

The poor savages soon learned that the prophet's predictions 
that the white men's bullets would not hurt them, were not true. 
They soon took alarm and many of them fled to a swamp, where 
the governor's soldiers followed them and made fearful havoc 
among them. They lost sixty-one dead upon the field and one 
hundred and twenty bleeding and helpless. The prophet was 
present to see the rout and defeat of his select warriors. Harri- 
son lost nearly as many, but his little army was intact and as 
intrepid as when it began the bloody work. 

After burying the dead, the army destroyed the town and 
everything that could aid the Indians in their further hostilities 
and then returned to Vincennes. 

This battle afforded the chorus for the campaign song that 
did not a little in the election of Mr. Harrison to the presidency, 
later in life. He little dreamed then of the use that would 
be made of it. 

This battle would have nipped in the bud this great revolt 
of all the tribes which Tecumseh had so long worked hard to 
bring about, had it not been for the English using their influ- 
ence to fan its dying flame. The tribes began at once to sue for 
peace and a good understanding, but Tecumseh returned from 
his southern tour and, Joining with the English, kept up the 
war spirit toward the United States. 

The war with England had now taken on a fierce aspect. 
Our whole northern frontier was exposed to incursions from 
Canada. The St. Lawrence river and the lakes afforded a high- 
way for the enemies' ships, and through that highway he could 
come into the heart of the Indian territory. He at once availed 
himself of that opportunity. In the revolutionary war, England 
allied herself with the savages of the forest, to lay waste the set- 
tlements of the frontier. So now, she revived her old policy, 
and Tecumseh's revolt favored her wishes. She made an ally 
of him. 

The battle of Tippecanoe was on the seventh of November, 
1811. 



28S OUR PRESrDENTS. 



COMMANDER-IlSr-CHIEF. 



In September, 1812, Governor Harrison was made com- 
mander of all the forces of the northwest. He at once turned 
his attention toward the recaj^ture of the fort at Detroit, which 
General Hull had ignominiously surrendered. That fort was 
the British key to the northwest. Between him and that point 
was a body of Indians on the Maumee. He ordered the scattered 
forces, in southern and central Ohio, to move toward Detroit. 
His plan was to overcome the Indians, gather at and retake the 
fort at Detroit, and so get repossession of the peninsula of Mich- 
igan. In this way he would make it difficult for the British to 
cooperate with the Indians. The lateness of the season and the 
early autumn rains filling the swamps and streams, made it 
impossible to carry his plans immediately into effect. A portion 
of his forces met the Indians on the Maumee and were almost 
destroyed. This disaster helped to retard the movement upon 
Detroit. In the meantime, the Indians all along the frontier 
let loose their dogs of savage warfare upon the scattered settle- 
ments.. Eobbing, plundering, killing, scalping, burning, were 
everywhere going on. The men from the settlements had for 
the most pal-t gathered into Harrison's army, which had to wait 
for winter to freeze up the swamps, so it might make its way to 
Detroit. It was a terrible winter to the exposed settlements 

In the spring the British had come to the assistance of the 
Indians on the Maumee, and the way of Harrison was hedged by 
this union under Proctor and Tecumseh. Severe fighting ensued 
with varied results, from time to time for some months. Rein- 
forcements continued to come from Kentucky, under Governor 
Shelby, and from Ohio, to Harrison's army. Affairs grew more 
and more favorable to Harrison, and the prospect looked encour- 
aging for sweeping the valley of the Maumee to the lake. 

Just at this juncture of affairs Commodore Perry gained his 
great battle on Lake Erie, September tenth, 1813, which secured 
to the United States the command of the lake as the gateway to 
the northwest. 

On the twenty-seventh of September, Harrison and his army 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 289 

embarked on Perry's ships, to cross the hike to the Canada shore 
in pursuit of Proctor and Tecumseh, who had gone to the valley 
of the Thames. "On the twenty-ninth Harrison was at Sand- 
wich, and McArthur took possession of Detroit and the territory 
of Michigan." 

" On the second of October the Americans began their march in 
pursuit of Proctor, whom they overtook on the fifth " in the valley 
of the Thames river. Here was a concentration of the most of the 
land forces on both sides, Commodore Perry acting as one of 
General Harrison's aides. The forces on both sides were arranged 
with deliberation. The battle was brief but decisive, on account 
of a wedge of dragoons which Harrison formed in the beginning, 
of men accustomed from their youth up to ride through the 
woods musket in hand. They broke the British line and put it 
into confusion in their first charge, and it could not recover. It 
soon became a rout. The Indians made a more stubborn 
resistance and held out longer; but Tecumseh falling dead, they 
took alarm and became a rout also. The victory to the Ameri- 
cans was complete. General Harrison had urged upon Congress 
from the beginning of the war, the construction of a fleet of 
gunboats to command Lake Erie. Their importance was demon- 
strated in Perry's battle, which was a part of General Harrison's 
campaign. That, followed so closely by the battle of the 
Thames, brought Harrison's part of the war to a close. 

Congress recognized the great value of General Harrison's 
services, in the following resolution: 

"Resolved, by the Senate and House of Eepresentatives of 
the United States of America in Congress assembled, that the 
thanks of Congress be and they are hereby presented to Major- 
General William Henry Harrison and Isaac Shelby, late governor 
of Kentucky, and through them to the officers and men of their 
command, for their gallant and good conduct in defeating the 
combined British and Indian forces under Major-General Proc- 
tor, on the Thames in Upper Canada, on the fifth day of Octo- 
ber, 1813, capturing the British army, with their baggage, camp 
equipage and artillery; and, that the president of the United 
States be requested to cause two gold medals to be struck, 
19 



290 OUR PRESIDEXTS. 

emblematical of this triumph, and i:)resented to General Har- 
rison and Isaac Shelby, late governor of Kentucky." 

From the beginning of his career as a soldier, his services 
were of great j^ractical value to his country, increasing con- 
stantly, till now they brought peace to the great northwest. 

His work so nobly done, he repaired to Washington and 
resigned his office as major general of the armies, on account of 
some want of harmony of views with the secretary of war, 
greatly to the regret of President Madison. He repaired to his 
home on the Ohio, for the domestic repose which of all things 
he most enjoyed. But the following summer, the president 
appointed him at the head of a commission on Indian affairs, 
with Governor Shelby and General Cass as his associates. 

In 1816, he was elected to the House of Eepresentatives in 
Congress, from Ohio. He had but just taken his seat when his 
conduct in the war was called in question. No more than 
Washington did he escape traducers. But he triumphantly 
vindicated his conduct. 

While in Congress, he labored for a reform in the militia, 
which he did not accomplish ; and for pensions for the soldiers 
of the revolution and the late war, which he did secure, which 
has carried comfort and joy to multitudes of soldiers' homes, and 
established the custom which makes the United States the best 
country in the world to its defenders. Let all pensioned 
soldiers remember General Harrison with gratitude. 

When General Harrison was in Congress, the celebrated res- 
olutions of censure of General Jackson, for his taking possession 
of Spanish territory, and hanging two British subjects, in the 
Seminole war, were offered. Harrison supported the resolutions 
in an elaborate and powerful siaeech, yet paid a high tribute to 
the patriotism and noble intentions of the impetuous and reso- 
lute general. The following extract from that speech, which is 
a choice specimen of the delicate and dextrous use of elegant 
English, will show the spirit and refined talent of the great 
patriot. 

" I am sure, sir, that it is not the intention of any gentleman 
upon this floor, to rob General Jackson of a single ray of glory ; 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 291 

much less, to wound his feelings or injure his reputation. If 
the resolutions pass, I would address him thus : ' In the per- 
formance of a sacred duty, imposed by their construction of the 
constitution, the representatives of the people have found it 
necessary to disapprove of a single act of your brilliant career. 
They have done it in the full conviction that the hero who has 
guarded her rights in the field, will bow with reverence to the 
civil institutions of his country ; that he has admitted as his 
creed, that the character of the soldier can never be complete 
without eternal reverence to the character of the citizen. Go, 
gallant chief, and bear with you the gratitude of your country ; 
go under the full conviction, that as her glory is identified with 
yours, she has nothing more dear to her than her laws, nothing 
more sacred than her constitution. Even an unintentional error 
shall be sanctified to her service. It will teach posterity that 
the government which could disapprove the conduct of a Mar- 
cellus, will have the fortitude to crush the vices of a Marius.^ " 
Noble words, classic in finish, christian in morality ! 

But Jackson was not equal to their comprehension. He 
never forgave Harrison for their utterance. 

In 1819 Mr. Harrison was elected to the Senate of Ohio; in 
1824 one of the presidential electors of that state; in 1829 was 
appointed minister to the rejjublic of Columbia; in 1836 was 
named as a candidate for the presidency, and in 1840 was elected 
in opposition to Van Buren, who ran for a second term. 

The Harrison campaign was one of the most exciting ever 
known in this country. The bad effects of Jackson's and Van 
Buren's financial policy had paralyzed the business of the coun- 
try, and little hope of any prosperity or security for business 
was to be seen by the wisest financiers. This produced the 
union of all the conservative and opposition elements in the 
formation of the whig party. The combination was so strong, 
and the determination to rout the Jackson dynasty so resolute, 
that the campaign became a blaze of popular enthusiasm. Mass 
meetings, processions, songs, badges, and every form of power- 
ful popular demonstration, became the order of the day. Log 
cabins were drawn at the head of immense processions through 



292 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

all the cities and villages of the country. It was remembered 
for years as the log-cabin campaign. It was really the revolt of 
the country against the financial mistakes of the two previous 
administrations. Harrison was elected, and on the fourth of 
March, 1841, was inaugurated. John Tyler, of Virginia, was 
his vice-president. He selected a strong cabinet, with Daniel 
Webster, of Massachusetts, secretary of state. On the seventeenth 
of March he issued a proclamation for an extra session of Con- 
gress, chiefly to consider and try to remedy the deplorable con- 
dition of the finances of the country. It was called for the last 
Monday in May. 

A few days after President Harrison began to suifer from a 
severe cold. It grew worse, and he was attacked with a severe 
chill, followed by a fever. This again was followed by a bilious 
pleurisy, which, on the fourth of April, terminated his life. 
His death shocked the nation. Hardly since the days of Wash- 
ington had any man so held the hearts and hopes of the peojole. 
His excellent character, his devoted patriotism, his admirable 
self-poise, his great talents and uniform success through a long 
life of varied public services, had created great expectations at a 
time when all these qualities were greatly needed to improve the 
ill conditions under which the country was suffering. 

His funeral was held on the seventh of April, 1841, at 
Washington; but public funereal honors were awarded him in 
churches, halls and public buildings in every part of the country. 
He lived just one month after his inauguration. 



Ihe i[RAVE OF William Ienry Harrison. 

Fifteen miles west of Cincinnati, on the summit of a hillock 
at North Bend, in a brick vault, rest the remains of William 
Henry Harrison. Those of his wife and children repose with 
them. A large flat stone, two or three feet above the surface of 
the earth, covers the vault. No monument or slab is erected. 
No inscription telling who sleeps there, or indicating a surviv- 



WILLIAM HEKRY HAlUilSON^. 293 

ing friend to keep the place in memory, has been made. A 
thick undergrowth covers the elevation, and evergreens cluster 
about the sj)ot. 

Eeflections at the graves of the great and honored can hardly 
be crowded out from the minds of the living as they stand by 
honored dust. Here is the dust of Harrison, whose eyes, in his 
youth, saw all the valleys of the Ohio and the Miamis covered 
with the "forest primeval." These rounded hills and hollowed 
valleys were the homes of the red men and the wild animals. 
Nature ran riot in all her wild ways through this continent of 
forest. Here came this youth where few had come before him, 
educated, refined, aspiring, to begin his manhood in the midst 
of every possible obstacle to the attainment of what he most 
coveted — educated society, elevated pursuits, a peaceful home 
and an honored age. How could he expect to find these here? 
And yet he came with a great hope and a courage that braved 
everything. He foresaw the possibilities of this rich country. 
He believed in the free institutions which his father and Wash- 
ington and their compeers had founded. He believed in 
humanity and righteous principles and honorable conduct ; and 
so he came and lived nobly, and opened a highway for the 
coming generations. And how they have come ! Here is the 
queen city of the west where was. only a hamlet when he came. 
Here are the great states of Ohio and Indiana, where he hunted 
Indians, and, later in life, surveyed state, county and township 
lines. Here are beautiful farms where were swamps and 
morasses when he first searclied for dry ways in these woods. 
Here are fifty millions of jieojile in this young republic which 
had only three then. He came and opened the way for this 
change. Did he live in vain? No. He was a John the Baptist 
in this wilderness, a pioneer whom a host followed. It is given 
to but few to have a part in such great changes. His labors and 
struggles all told grandly for the future. His plantings have 
produced a rich harvest. To-day we can give him honor and 
speak his name by the side of his grave with profound respect. 
He went early into the forest, and because he there lived nobly 
his country called him to its highest position of honor. 



294 



OUE PRESIDENTS. 



Is there less for us to live for? By no means. The country- 
is yet new. Opportunity still is open for grand life. We may 
not fight Indians, but we may fight evils. We may not clear 
away the forests, but we may clear away the ignorance and vices 
of society. There is as much for us to do as there was for him. 
There are more to copy our example, more to improve upon our 
doings, more to take up our work where we leave it. This 
silent grave may be an eloquent j^reacher of life and duty and 
destiny, if we will but hear its still, small voice of the spirit. 
Let us go away to live more nobly. 




CHAPTER XI. 



JOHlSr TTLEE. 

Tenth President of the United States. 




AlSrCESTRT. 

•IKE the other presidents from Virginia, John Tyler 
had a noble ancestry. He came into the world with an 
impetus of good blood and brain power, and came into 
good social surroundings. He was rocked in the cradle 
of intelligence ; breathed the atmosphere of culture; and 
warmed in his infancy at the fire of patriotism. 
His ancestors were among the early English settlers in Vir- 
ginia and were of the same social standing as the Washingtons, 
Lees, Wythes, Madisons and Harrisons. It is understood that 
they were decendants of the celebrated Walter or Wat Tyler, of 
the fourteenth century, who led an insurrection in England, in 
defense of the rights of the people. 

The grandfather of the president, John Tyler, was marshal 
of the colony under the British crown for many years, until his 
death, which did not occur till after the troubles occasioned by 
the Stamp act. He died possessed of a large estate of land in 
and about Williamsburg, which put his family into good financial 
circumstances. 

Tlie father of the president, John Tyler, again took an active 
part in laying before the king and parliament the grievances of 
the colonies, and in seeking relief therefrom. He became a 

295 



296 OUli PEESIDENTS. 

distinguished patriot; was speaker of the house of delegates, 
governor of the state, and judge of one of the highest courts. 
At the opening of the war of 1812, President Madison made 
him judge of tlie court of admiralty. In February, 1813, he 
died, full of years and honors, leaving three sons; Wat, John 
and William, to bear on his name and continue his work for 
home and country. 

BIKTH AND BOYHOOD. 

John Tyler, the president, was born in Charles City county, 
Virginia, March 20, 1790, just after the adojition of the con- 
stitution, in the second year of Washington's administration. 
He was among the early children of the young nation and had 
wrought into his nature something of' the spirit of which it was 
born. His parents and the people of their community Avere 
flaming patriots. His early life, at home, at school, and among 
his playfellows, was a growth among patriotic influences. The 
great names of his state were the great names of his country, 
and they became familiar to his youthful ears. The history of 
those great times was the conversation of the older people among 
whom he was reared. He was a precocious child, grew quick 
and ripened early — too precocious for great permanent strength, 
breadth, and stability of mind. His quick nature absorbed the 
opinions and the cliaracter of the life about him; before he had 
time or knowlcge to know why he had accepted the political 
biases of liis associates. His plastic mind lilled quickly the 
mould which others made for it. 

His early education was in the schools of his neighborhood. 
He moved on rapidly, and at twelve years of age entered 
William and Mary college. Of course the preparation was but a 
boy's preparation, and indicates both his extreme brightness, 
and that the requirements of the college for entrance were not 
such as are now made by all colleges. He graduated at seven- 
teen, at about the age at which bright, well-fitted boys ought to 
enter. The subject of his address at his graduation was 
" Female Education." It would be interesting to read it now and 
compare it with the advanced ideas and practices of our time on 



JOHN TiLEK. 297 

that subject, yet from the nature of his mind, we may infer that 
he had advanced views, though no chronicler has preserved them. 
Young Tyler studied law two years, from seventeen to nine- 
teen, under the instruction of his father and Edmund Randolph, 
when he was admitted to the bar. He at once began practice, 
and in three months there was scarcely a disputable case on the 
docket in which he was not retained. He became a youthful 
legal prodigy. Everybody who went to court must have the boy 
lawyer to lead him through the intricacies of law. John Quincy 
Adams was four years in getting any practice, while John Tyler 
was overrun with jjractice in four months. Later in life the 
difference was the other way. 

POLITICAL CAREER. 

At twenty, our brilliant, youthful lawyer was proposed as a 
candidate for the legislature, but declined. The next year, 
when twenty-one, he was elected. He at once entered actively 
into the business and political interests of the state and the 
times. By absorption he was a Jeffersonian. The great inter- 
ests of the South, as they were understood about him, were held 
sacred by those of that line of politics. 

The second war with England came right on, and he sup- 
ported it with enthusiasm. He was a zealous advocate of Mr. 
Madison's conduct of the war. While the British forces were 
in the Chesapeake bay, Mr. Tyler raised a volunteer' company 
and strove to organize the militia of his neighborhood and enlist 
them against the invaders, but they were driven out before his 
plans were consummated, and his military genius failed of 
development. 

He was re-elected to the legislature for a number of years, 
and stoutly maintained the princii^les of the party. Among its 
teachings was the doctrine of the "Eight of Instruction," which 
was that when a state instructed its members how to act on a 
given subject, they were under obligation to obey the instruc- 
tion, even against their personal convictions. This matter came 
up anew while he was in the state legislature. Messrs. Giles and 
Brent were senators in Congress from Virginia, and had been 



298 OUR PEESIDENTS. 

instructed by their state legislature to vote against a renewal of 
the charter of the United States bank, when it should come up. 
Mr. Brent disobeyed. Mr. Tyler then introduced a resolution 
of censure against the self-acting senator, making a strong 
speech in favor of the resolution, and laying it down as a prin- 
ciple that any person accepting the office of senator from the 
state of Virginia obligated himself to conform to this rule. It 
afterward came in his way. 

In 1815 Mr. Tyler was elected as a member of the executive 
council, and served until the autumn of 1816, when, after an 
excited election, he was chosen to fill a vacancy in Congress. 
His opponent in this contest was Andrew Stevenson, a politician 
of the same school. When he took his seat, in December, he 
was twenty-six and a half years old. The next year he was 
re-elected by a strong majority. In 1819 he was elected again. 

In Congress he was a strict partisan of the southern demo- 
cratic style; maintained the high states rights doctrines; the 
federative notion of the union; the pro-slavery doctrines of the 
South, which sought to extend the slave territory and power. 
He took an active part in the debate on the Missouri question, 
maintaining with great zeal the southern side, as though it had 
been the side of patriotism, of right and humanity. He voted 
to censure General Jackson for his abuse of his authority in the 
Seminole war; opposed a protective tariff, internal improve- 
ments by the general government, and a national bank. He 
was over-zealous in his promulgation of the doctrines of his 
party and section of the country, and broke down his health; so 
he was obliged to resign and retire to his country estate to 
recruit. 

In the fall of 1823 he went again to the Virginia legislature. 
In his state legislature lie urged internal improvements by the 
state, and introduced bills to this end. He lost no opportunity 
to magnify the state ; appealed to state pride and cupidity to 
introduce improvements of every kind into the state by state 
authority and at state expense. He was chagrined that other 
states were surpassing Virginia in population, wealth and enter- 
prise, and he sought to remedy the evil by state improvements. 



JOHN TYLEK. 399 

He sought in his legislative speeches to arouse Virginians to a 
sense of their lethargy and the need of action that their state 
should not be left behind in the race for prosperity and power. 
His appeals were not without success, for many of the finest 
public works in the state were the result of his labors. Had his 
political philosophy for the whole country been as comprehen- 
sive and sound as was his zeal for Virginia, he would have won 
imperishable laurels. In his state he showed the qualities of a 
statesman, and the people appreciated them. Here his politics 
did not fetter him. 

In December, 1825, Mr. Tyler was elected governor of Vir- 
ginia, and the next year was re-elected. His success as a state 
legislator had won him great jDopularity. 

John Randolph was then one of Virginia's United States 
Senators. His eccentric genius, singularity and general uncer- 
tainty, did not make him popular. He often hurt his friends 
and his cause. Many Virginia democrats regretted his eccen- 
tricities and mistakes. And yet a certain wild genius for public 
speech made him a hard man to disi^lace. The most consider- 
ate men opposed to him, believed that Governor Tyler could be 
elected in opposition to him. The movement was made and 
the governor was elected to the Senate of the United States. 
A public dinner was given him; speeches were made; he made 
one himself in which he glorified his political princij)les, and 
announced himself as opposed to the president, John Quincy 
Adams. Adams' message he said, "Had in it an almost total 
disregard of the federative principle." His whole political 
career had stood for the "federative principle," that is, that 
the Union is a confederacy of the several separate states to 
remain while they are satisfied, and to fall apart one by one as 
they came in, when they are dissatisfied. This view magnified 
the states above the nation, made every citizen's supreme 
loyalty that to the state. In the beginning the democratic 
party favored this "federative principle," and it was always 
especially strong in the South. The federalists regarded the 
confederation as made by the"peo2:)le of the United States," 
and hence the Union as indissoluble — the nation to be self- 



300 OUlt PEESIDENTS. 

existent and self-defensive till some power strong enough should 
bring it to an end. This was the original and essential differ- 
ence between the parties. There were other differences, but 
this was the vital one. 

Yet it is worthy of note that though this difference was 
much discussed from the beginning, the federalists put their 
principles into the constitution, at the start, and though the 
government has much of the time been administered by demo- 
crats there has been no permanent law or amendment enacted 
since, contrary to the original federalist constitution. The 
essential principles which the federalists put into the govern- 
ment at the beginning, have stood as a wall against which the 
Jeffersonian opposition has beat in vain since. The true democ- 
racy which stands for the interests of the whole people, is in a 
strong government — an indissoluble union of the whole people 
— a bulwark against anarchy and misrule from within, and 
enemies from without. Adams stood for this idea of the gov- 
ernment; Tyler went into the Senate to oppose it. It was this 
"federative principle," as Mr. Tyler called it, which from near 
the beginning, and especially after his time, dwarfed and misled 
the statesmanship of the South and of the party which main- 
tained it. The Jeffersonian party, though it has always had 
great numbers and much of tlie time been in power, has never 
moved a foundation or turret stone of the government. The 
statesmanship which laid deep and built strong, has been in 
other parties; and this chiefly because of the political heresies 
that entered early into the doctrines of this party. 

As soon as in Congress Mr. Tyler allied himself with the 
opposition. Mr. Adams was non-partisan, and was beyond 
question the broadest statesman of his age. But his very 
breadth spoiled him for the Virginia senator. Mr. Tyler lost 
no occasion to magnify his views so popular in his own state, 
especially those concerning the powers of the general govern- 
ment and the commercial policy of the country. 

When General Jackson came in after Mr. Adams, Mr. Tyler 
gave a cheerful and sympathetic support to his administration 
in the main. He oj)posed the recharter of the national bank. 



JOHN TYLER. 301 

That was a national institution, gave circulation to a national 
currency, supported a national credit and tended to make the 
nation a monopoly over the states. His doctrine was that the 
states should authorize banking and the emission of paper 
money, and give the country what currency it had, save gold 
and silver, which should be the only national money. The heart 
of the objection to the national bank was the fact that it fos- 
tered a nationality which overshadowed state power. It was 
opi^osed to the "federative principle." The opj)osition was 
consistent with the "federative principle," which contained the 
seeds of nullification, rebellion, disunion and destruction. 
Nationality would not be long possible under the "federative 
princijjle" which Senator Tyler so magnified. 

Senator Tyler opposed a protective tariff with great vehe- 
mence and show of political learning, and made a three days' 
speech against it, which of itself was enough to show the fallacy 
of his argument; and yet he contended for a tariff for revenue. 
In his opposition he complained that the tariff operated against 
the South and kept it poor and hindered it from keeping pace 
with the North in advancing in wealth and power. He failed to 
see that the South was her own hinderance in her slave labor 
which made white labor dishonorable, the whites idlers and 
cumberers of the ground, prevented immigration, invention, 
enterprise, education and civilization. He failed to see that 
slavery prevented all skilled labor, and, therefore, prevented 
manufactures, commerce and business enterprise, and reduced 
society to the dead level of slow producers of raw material from 
the soil with hand labor. 

Could the rest of the world afford to wait for that slow pro- 
cess? Could the rest of the world afford to keep itself poor and 
weak in enterprise because the South was bound to so continue? 
If he would have looked as a statesman, instead of as a Southern 
politician, he would have seen all the white people of the North 
busy in the production of wealth, enterprise and character, — 
would have seen immigration pouring in from all Europe, with 
money, muscle, and energy, to settle up states, broaden and 
quicken society, a great variety of interests occupying the hands 



302 • OUR PRESIDENTS. 

and brains of enterprising millions, — would have seen a nation- 
building North developing every kind of talent and power, 
while the South was busy hugging the Delilah of slavery and 
arguing against the tariff and nationality. The truth was that 
a tariff was the upbuilding agency of the country, and it was 
the business of the South to adjust itself to it, instead of trying 
to force its own paralysis of business enterprise upon the rest of 
the country. 

Senator Tyler also opposed internal improvements by the 
general government. He did this on the same principle that he 
opposed a national bank, and a national tariff, that it encouraged 
nationality and reduced state supremacy. In this he was nar- 
rowed by his sectional and partisan ideas of the dignity of a 
state and the subserviency of the national government. He did 
not seem to see that business, travel, society, education, know 
no state lines, that commerce, agriculture, and the wide interests 
of the nation know no North or South, East or West, much less 
state boundaries; nor did he seem to see that these great 
interests that concerned the good of the whole, needed the 
fostering hand of the general government, and that good j^olicy 
and sound principles demanded that they should have it. 

It was during Jackson's presidency that John C. Calhoun's 
nullification scheme came to the front, which was to repudiate, 
or nullify the tariff laws so far as the port of Charleston and the 
state of South Carolina was concerned, so as to let foreign goods 
come in duty free. It was simply rebellion against the laws of 
the United States, — one state resisting all the rest. Senator 
Tyler supported Mr. Calhoun and South Carolina in this nulli- 
fication of the laws of his country. In this he was consistent 
with his political theory of the subserviency of the nation to the 
state, and so were Calhoun and South Carolina. 

Jackson entertained the same general views that Tyler did, 
and if Calhoun had been his friend instead of his enemy, might 
have taken a very different view of his nullification; for the law. 
stood very little in the way of his supreme desires. 

Senator Tyler agreed with Jackson in his opposition to a 
national bank, but opposed Jackson's removal of the deposits 



JOHN TYLER. 303 

from the bank, on the ground that it was unlawful, or a nulli- 
fication of the law. 

In March, 1835, Senator Tyler was elected president of the 
Senate joro tempore, by the Joint votes of the whigs and state- 
rights senators. In February, 1836, the legislature of Virginia 
passed a resolution instructing its senators "to vote for a reso- 
lution directing the resolution of March 28, 1834, censuring the 
conduct of General Jackson, to be expunged from the journal of 
the Senate." Mr. Leigh, colleague of Mr. Tyler, refused to 
obey, and gave his reasons. Mr. Tyler would not obey, because 
he did not believe in the expunging doctrine, and yet would 
not vote against the instructions of his state, because he believed 
in the "right of instruction," so he resigned and gave his 
reasons therefor. Both senators were feasted by their constitu- 
ents for their integrity. 

In 1835 Mr. Tyler was nominated for vice-president on the 
ticket with Harrison, but both failed of an election. In the 
spring of 1836 he was elected to the Virginia Legislature. At 
this time he acted with the whig party in opposition to Van 
Buren. In 1839 he was made a delegate to the whig National 
Convention at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to nominate candidates 
for president and vice-president. He labored for the nomina- 
tion of Clay, but General Harrison secured the nomination. To 
conciliate the irritated friends of Mr. Clay, Mr. Tyler was put 
upon the ticket for vice-president. His whole life had been 
against the principles of the Avhig party. It was its especial 
object to establish a national bank and remedy the bad condition 
of the finances of the country. But he was put upon the ticket 
as a compromise with the South and Mr. Clay's friends. It was 
a dear compromise to whig principles and the party. But Mr. 
Tyler made his speeches, letters and labors in the canvass 
satisfactory to the party, and the ticket was elected. 

VICE-PEESIDENT AND PRESIDENT TYLEE. 

On the fourth of March, 1841, Mr. Tyler was inaugurated 
vice-president of the United States. In one month after being 
inaugurated. President Harrison died. Mr. Tyler was inau- 



304 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

gurated president on the seventh of April. An extra session 
of Congress had been called by Mr. Harrison for the thirty-first 
of May, to try to benefit the ill condition of the country 
occasioned by the former administrations. When Congress 
assembled, the first question that came before it was as to 
how the acting president should be addressed. Was he presi- 
dent, or was he vice-jiresident? It was decided that he was 
president. President Tyler's message was well received; his 
appointments were satisfactory. 

On the twelfth of June, Mr, Ewing, secretary of the treasury, 
reported the condition of the national finances, and also a bill 
for the '' Fiscal Bank of the United States." The plan for this 
fiscal bank was designed to be free from all features that would 
be objectionable to the president. A bill, such as the secretary 
recommended, was offered in Congress, and passed August 6. 
It went to the president. In ten days he returned it with a veto 
message. The party leaders were troubled. The president out- 
lined a bank for national transactions, which he had wished to 
see established. A bill was prepared exactly to suit his ideal 
fiscal agent. It passed Congress, and went to the president on 
the third of September. On the ninth, he returned it with his 
objections. This was trifling ; and astounding to his associates. 
Two days after, all the members of his cabinet resigned but Mr. 
Webster, the secretary of state, who had in hand an important 
transaction with England: the settlement of the north-eastern 
boundary. Soon after that was settled, in 1842, Mr. Webster 
resigned. 

The whig party was shocked and shattered by the action of 
its president. The great Harrison campaign was lost ; the will 
of the people was defeated by one man. The anticipated helps 
to the finances of the country were put off. Maledictions were 
freely showered upon the president. 

At the extra session of Congress a protective tariff bill was 
passed and signed by the president. Also a bill for the use of 
the money accruing from the sales of the public lands; and a bill 
for a uniform bankrupt law. 

At the next Congress, the twenty-eighth, which met in 1843, 



JOHN TYLER. 305 

the president found liimself without a party. lie had swung 
more and more over to the democrats, with whom he really 
belonged; had api)ointed many democrats to office, and some to 
his cabinet; and had shaped his official conduct more after dem- 
ocratic than other models; and yet the democrats did not accept 
him as their president. The Twenty-eighth Congress had a dem- 
ocratic House and a whig Senate. In a party sense, his hands 
were tied. Through Caleb Cushing, of Massachusetts, a treaty 
with China was formed, which was the opening of that greatest 
empire of the world to intercourse with the United States. 

In 1844, a treaty of annexation was arranged with Texas, 
through Mr. John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina. Joint reso- 
lutions passed Congress March 1, 1845, formally annexing Texas 
with the United States. This was a consummation devoutly 
desired by the south, and long coveted and planned for, to open 
an empire of virgin soil to the extension of slavery, and the order 
of society it promoted. The growth of the north was a constant 
menace to the politicians of the south. They dreaded the time 
when they should be outvoted in Congress by the north. The 
south had little in business, manufacture, commerce, railroading, 
telegraphing, inventing, mining, navigation, engineering, science, 
education, to employ- its men of talent. The north had much 
of its best talent emi)loyed in these great and civilizing affairs; 
and was widening their domains of enterprise all the time. The 
south had but one inviting field, which was politics. That field 
it kept full of first-class talent all the time. And its politicians 
made it a study, gave time, zeal, and their whole power to it. It 
was usual for Congress, and all the offices in its gifts, to be 
largely filled with the best talent of the south, devoted to j)oli- 
tics as a profession. It was usual for the south to have its best 
debating talent in Congress ; and there generally went with it 
the tyranny of will and purpose, born of the institution of 
slavery. 

With southern politicians, therefore, h was always an object 

to extend slave territory, even though the territory they had 

was not half settled, nor half filled with enterprise. And when 

Texas was annexed, which had been fought for at the expense 

20 



306 OtJR PRESIDENTS. 

of the United States for a long time, it could be settled only at 
a snail's pace. 

Mr, Tyler's last act as president was to pocket a river and 
harbor bill and go out of office without signing it, thus defeat- 
ing it by what is called the '^ pocket veto." 

On the fourth of March, 1845, he retired from office without 
the regrets of either party, and with little honor for his great 
vexation and trouble. 

He retired to Sherwood Forest, Charles City county, Vir- 
ginia, and lived in comfort and peace in a home he prized. He 
was a gentleman in manners and bearing, well furnished with 
information, of a refined taste and delicate sensibilities. It was 
his misfortune to have been born to the patrimony of that 
"irrepressible conflict" between slavery and freedom, which 
toned the society about him, and gave the politics he inherited 
from his state and section. 

He was twice married ; first to Miss Letitia Christian, of 
Kent county, Virginia, in 1813, who died in Washington, in 
1843, leaving three sons and three daughters ; second, to Miss 
Julia Gardiner, of New York. 

In 1861, when the great rebellion against the Union, to estab- 
lish an empire of slavery under the name of the "Confederate 
States," was inaugurated, Mr. Tyler, by sympathy and political 
doctrine, belonged to it and was a part of it. He was a friend 
and coadjutor of John C. Calhoun in his nullification doctrines 
and practice, which was rebellion on a small scale, and was the 
first planting of the seed of rebellion. He had always main- 
tained the doctrine of state rights which exalted the state above 
the nation, and made the citizen's supreme loyalty that which 
was due to his state; had always believed in the "federative 
principle" which united the states during mutual pleasure and 
bearable conduct ; and now that rebellion on a large scale had 
come by the legitimate effect of those doctrines, it was to be 
expected that he would be logical enough to rebel if his state 
did. He joined the confederates ; was made a member of their 
congress ; and Avhile doing all he could to destroy the country 
that had honored him in her councils and with her chief-magis- 



JOHN" TYLER. 



307 



tracy, was taken sick and in a few days died. Sad for the mem- 
ory of President Tyler, that his name must forever stand 
associated with the misery and desolation brought upon the 
country, north and south, by the most ill-judged rebellion that 
ever crushed a fair land and an indulgent government. Pity is 
stronger than blame in all generous minds toward our only pres- 
ident who has lifted a hand againgt the government that had 
honored him. Still let his name be kept in the everlasting roll 
of honor which makes the presidents of the United States an 
honored and immortal few that ''were not born to die." 




308 OUR PRESIDEKTS. 



IhE i.RAVE OF lOHN IyLER. 

In Hollywood cemetery, near Eichmond, Virginia, without 
obelisk, slab, or bust — ten yards from President Monroe's 
peculiar monument, sleej)s obscurely the mortal body of John 
Tyler. 

It is to be hoped that in the near future, the presidents' 
grayes, which have now no fitting recognition, shall either by 
private patriotism or public justice, be monumented and hon- 
ored by appropriate expressions of national gratitude and 
respect. It is due to the nation itself. 

Hollywood cemetery is indeed an interesting city of the 
dead, not only on account of its beautiful situation in that noted 
part of the country where have originated and lived so many 
great men, but on account of the distinguished men whose 
mortal bodies repose in its sacred enclosure. All cemeteries are 
sacred to thoughtful and humane men, but those which hold 
the dust of great worth and honored characters are especially so. 

About thirty feet from the grave of President Monroe, with 
its singular monument, in isolation and loneliness is the grave 
of President John Tyler. At its head has grown a small mag- 
nolia tree, which is its only monument ; whether set there by 
human hand or by nature is not told in books. Other trees and 
shrubbery are about it. 

At the time of his death, January 17, 1862, President Tyler 
was a member of the Confederate Congress. Virginia had 
attempted to secede from the United States, notwithstanding 
her history, her sacred relicts of presidents and great men, and 
Mr. Tyler, deluded by the doctrine of state rights, which 
he accepted when a young man, thought he must be disloyal 
because a majority of his state legislature were at that partic- 
ular time, and so he repudiated his country and joined the 
confederates in their attempt to form a new country in the old 
national home. 

The disloyal state assembly, then in session at Richmond, 



JOHN TYLER. 309 

passed resolutions of resj)ect and sorrow on account of the death 
of "the great and good man/' and instructed the governor to 
have erected "a suitable monument to his memory." The Con- 
federate Congress passed resolutions of respect, and three days 
after his death joined with the state officials and the dignitaries 
of the confederate government, military and civil societies, and a 
great body of citizens, in a great procession, which bore at its 
head the mortal remains of President Tyler to their rest in the 
peaceful grave, where rebellion and its bloody war would not 
disturb them. Bishop Johns conducted the funeral services. 
The great men among the confederates were his pall-bearers. 
The vast multitude stood in respectful silence while the grave 
was filled, and then departed, leaving the grave to the growth of 
nature's adornments, but returning not with slab or shaft to 
note the place where they had laid him. But it was for no want 
of respect or affection; for, as the multitude departed from his 
grave, so passed away the multitude of the confederates from 
state and national power. 

All around him are the tombs of the great men of his section; 
and but a little way from it the dust of sixteen thousand con- 
federate soldiers, whose tall, pyramidal monument tells forever 
of the heresy of "state rights"' and the folly and wickedness of 
the rebellion. Singularly interesting are the names all about 
him that figure in the history of the rebellion, such as Governor 
Wise, James M. Mason, A. P. Hill, and many more equally 
noted. Few cemeteries in the whole country have more names 
to call up great memories and to stir reflection on great events, 
and principles, and awaken sad regrets of terrible misjudgments 
and mistakes. It is a good place to come and weave broadly the 
mantle of christian charity, so as to hold them all in the sweet 
heart of forgiving love. 

Mrs. Tyler always believed that Virginia would erect a suit- 
able monument over her husband's grave; but it is more properly 
the work of the United States, which can well afford to do it in 
token of its free forgiveness of its honored dead, for President 
Tyler is ours forever. This centennial decade should not pass 
without the erection by Congress of a suitable monument. 



310 



OUR PEESIDENTS. 



Mr. Tyler's bust, by Volk, taken from a mask made after 
his death, is in the state library. There is also in the library a 
large portrait, by Hart, presented to Virginia by his daughter, 
Letitia Tyler Sempte, of Baltimore. 





«VEO EJPREESSLf ^OR wEAveSS LIVES 




CHAPTER XII. 




JAMES KlSrOX POLK. 

Eleventh President of the United States. 

OR several reasons which will appear in the record^ the 
biography of the eleventh president, is of interest 
aside from the distinguished position he attained. 
On the banks of the Catawba, in the county of Mechlen- 
burg, in the southwestern part of North Carolina, Andrew 
Jackson and his mother found protection and comfort 
among the ancestors of James K. Polk, and their neighbors, 
when they fled from their home at the Waxhaw settlement, as it 
was invaded by the British soldiery under Cornwallis. 

Early in the spring of 1775 the people of Mechlenburg 
county heard of the atrocities the British soldiers were committing 
in and around Boston, Massachusetts. Public meetings were 
at once called to discuss these invasions of the public peace. By 
one of these meetings. Colonel Thomas Polk, was authorized to 
call a convention of the representatives of the people, to see what 
should be done about the troubles at Boston. He called the 
convention for the nineteenth of May, 1775, at Charlotte, the 
county seat. At this meeting, the announcement of the battles 
of Lexington and Concord was made. Great excitement was 
occasioned. The spirit of resistance and independence was 
awakened. Eesolutions were adopted and read by Colonel 
Polk, from the court-house steps, "That we, the citizens of 
Mechlenburg county, do hereby dissolve the political bands 

311 



812 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

which have connected us to the mother country, and hereby 
absolve ourselves from all allegiance to the British crown; and 
that we do hereby declare ourselves a free and independent 
people." 

This first and heroic declaration of independence, is a 
testimony to the spirit of the people of that isolated county and 
to the ancestors of the eleventh president of the United States. 
It seems but a providential reward that from such a people and 
that place, should spring a president of the country, which was 
to grow from, the seed there planted. From the spirit of the 
Mechlenburg declaration came the eleventh president. 

AlSrCESTRT. * 

Colonel Thomas Polk and his brothers Ezekiel and Charles, 
were decendants of Eobert Polk, who came from the north of 
Ireland between 1735 and 1740, and settled in this vicinity. The 
name is a corruption of Pollock. The family were Scotch and 
were of those who early settled in the north of Ireland and con- 
stituted the people known as Scotch-Irish, Scotch in blood, but 
Irish in locality. 

Samuel Polk was the son of Ezekiel Polk, and the father of 
the president. The Polks were all staunch patriots in the 
times of the revolution. 

James K. Polk was born in Mechlenburg county, North 
Carolina, November 2, 1795, in the last term of Washington's 
administration. His mother was Jane Knox, daughter of 
James Knox, evidently of Scotch descent. He was the eldest 
son of a family of six sons and four daughters, and was named 
for his grandfather Knox, who was a captain in the revolu- 
tionary war. 

The Polks were a substantial, industrious, self-reliant people. 
Samuel was a plain, frugal, enterprising farmer, who tilled his 
own farm and taught his sons his independent way of living. 

With the close of the revolution there set in a strong desire 
to people the solitudes west of the Alleghanies. Washington 
favored it and did much to jjromote it. From Mechlenburg 
county and that vicinity many went. The Polks pretty gener- 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 313 

ally were among them. But Samuel did not get away till 1806, 
when he went with his family to the valley of the Duck river, a 
tributary of the Tennessee. Here he secured land, erected his 
cabin, made his home, and with hardy enterprise set about 
developing a farm. The next year the vicinity about him was 
formed into Maury county. He was a practical surveyor, and 
was much employed in surveying the new lands of the county. 
His son James often went with him on his surveying expeditions, 
assisting in such ways as he could; and it was not long before he 
could make the mathematical calculations for his father. These 
studies of the woods availed him much, as they promoted his 
scholarship and quickened his mind for further study. 

HIS BOYHOOD. 

The boyhood of James was that of a farmer's boy of all work. 
Being the oldest, he was the chore boy, the errand boy, the call- 
boy for all little jobs; the big boy to care for the little ones, help 
his mother and be generally useful. It is a rare thing if the 
oldest child does not find out many ways to be useful in the 
family. This was the favored opportunity for James. As his 
father was a surveyor, he added to the ordinary accomplishments 
of the oldest farmer boy, that of a surveyor's waiter, cook and 
teamster* In these many ways of usefulness, James was well 
trained in the helpful industries of everyday life and secured 
unconsciously the moral and courteous results of such training. 
There were business, duty, morality and manners in this training. 

In study, he had such advantages as the schools of his time 
afforded — enough to give him studious habits, a love of read- 
ing, and a covetousness of knowledge. 

His constitution not appearing to be strong, perhaps having 
been over- worked, his father thought it best to take him from 
the farm and put him into a store. This did not suit his taste, 
and he was allowed to leave and gratify his love of study, under 
the direction of Eeverend Doctor Henderson. Afterward he 
want to the Murfreesburg academy, where he had excellent 
advantages. In aboiit two years and a half, he prepared him- 



314 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

self to enter the sophomore class in the University of North 
Carolina. 

The farmer's boy^ reared as he was, who out of his uncon- 
querable desire to study, against his parents' wishes, and without 
encouragement from others, pushes on, and works his way into 
an advanced place in college, as he did, has already given 
assurance of a manhood that is likely to be marked. 

His course in college was the counterpart of what it had 
been at home, faithful, industrious, pushing, He was happy, 
because he was gratifying a hunger for knowledge. He made 
rapid progress, honored the college with a loyal submission to 
its laws, made friends and took the honors of his class, graduat- 
ing in June, 1818, in his twenty-third year. 

His college life strongly impressed him ; he became a college 
man, a lover of scholarship and scholars ; often revisited his 
college ; received from it, in 1847, the honorary degree of Doctor 
of Laws; and was its constant friend through the whole of 
his life. 

MR. POLK AS A LAWYER. 

Leaving college with somewhat impaired health, he rested 
for a few months, and early the next year, entered the law 
office of Mr. Felix Grundy, at Nashville. Mr. Grundy, at this 
time, was a prominent national man, and for many years held a 
conspicuous place among the strong men of the nation. Mr. 
Polk had, for a considerable time, anticipated the study of law. 
He went to it with a zest, as fulfilling a long-cherished desire. 
While studying with Mr. Grundy, he made the acquaintance of 
Andrew Jackson, who occasionally called at the office, and who 
was then living at the Hermitage, a few miles from Nashville. 
A friendship grew up from this acquaintance, which was life- 
lasting. Jackson had lived in Mechlenburg, where Polk was 
born ; had known his ancestors ; was himself born and reared 
near the same place ; they were both Scotch-Irish ; their ances- 
tors had come from the north of Ireland to this country about 
the same time ; they were both born of humble jsarents, and in 
straitened circumstances 3 Mr. Jackson was quick and ardent 



JAMES KJSTOX POLK. 315 

in his likes, as well as dislikes, and Mr. Polk was cordial, frank, 
manly ; so between them there was soon established the best of 
feelings. It was good fortune for Mr, Polk that he found two 
such friends in the office where he studied for his profession. 

Near the close of 1820, Mr. Polk was admitted to the bar. 

He was now twenty-five years old ; with a very practical bus- 
iness education as a boy ; a solid college education, and the 
acquaintance of scholarly men and class-mates, that comes with 
it as a youth ; a good professional education, and the friendship 
of Jackson and Grundy, and their associates. This was laying 
a broad foundation for a strong manhood. It was wisdom in 
the beginning. It was the initiatory investment for a great and 
sure fortune. Added to all this, as more and better, were an 
excellent moral character, good habits, the manners of a gen- 
tleman, and the spirit of a generous and high-minded man. 
Under such a beginning, Mr. Polk's fortune was almost assured. 

Mr. Polk entered at once upon the practice of law, and con- 
tinued for several years, growing more and more efficient and emi- 
nent. Sometimes he was alone, sometimes in company with other 
eminent lawyers, among whom were Anson V. Brown and Gid- 
eon J. Pillow, major-general in the Mexican war. In his pro- 
fession he won a place in the world, a competence, and the mas- 
tery of his powers and learning. 

ME. POLK A LEGISLATOR. 

In 1823 he was elected to the legislature of his state, after 
an animated canvass, in which he took the leading part. Pre- 
vious to this he had served as chief clerk in the House of 
Eepresentatives. He remained two years a member of the 
legislature. This was during the presidency of Mr. Monroe, 
with whom Mr. Polk was in full political sympathy. He 
approved the action of the Tennessee legislature of 1822, in 
nominating Andrew Jackson for the presidency, and in 1824 
assisted in nominating and electing him to the Senate of the 
United States. 

While a member of his state legislature, Mr. Polk procured 
the passage of a law against dueling, for which he had a great 



316 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

aversion, as an unmanly and cruel "code of honor," which had 
come as a relic of 'barbarism from a brutal past. To take this 
high moral ground touching an immoral practice, in a com- 
munity which had approved it, and among leading men like 
Andrew Jackson, his personal friend, who thought they were 
honored; by its practice, was a fine demonstration of the moral 
courage and character of the man. Hardly anything in his 
whole life speaks better for his head and heart, or reveals more 
clearly the richness of his moral nature. 

On the first day of January, 1824, Mr. Polk was married to 
Miss Sarah Childress, daughter of Joel Childress, a successful 
merchant of Eutherford county, Tennessee. He was now 
twenty-nine years old, well established in business, in reputa- 
tion and in character. Mrs. Polk was a woman for her place, 
able to adorn and honor exalted station, a helpmeet, indeed, to 
him in the important public career that was opening to him. 

MR. POLK THE CONGRESSMAN. 

In 1825 Mr. Polk was elected to the Lower House of Con- 
gress, and continued in this position for fourteen years. Into 
his duties as a national legislator he carried his studious habits, 
methodical ways and honest sense of duty. He was a working 
man, and he made a working member of Congress. He was 
elected to Congress the same year John Quincy Adams was 
inaugurated president. He served through his term, not in 
direct opposition to the president, but holding in the main 
quite different views on partisan subjects. 

Mr. Adams' election by the House, defeating Jackson, who 
had the most electoral votes on the first ballot, caused a warm 
discussion of the constitutional plan of electing the president. 
Much was said of amending the cojistitution. Mr. Polk made 
his first speech in Congress on this subject, advocating an 
amendment which should give the choice of the president and 
vice-president directly to the jjeople, without the intervention 
of an electoral college. 

Mr. Polk was put on important committees, and more and 



James kkox polk. 817 

more, as his talents and fidelity became known, were the 
working oars of Congress j)ut into his hands. 

After General Jackson became president, the question of 
internal improvements by the general government came np for 
re-discussion. Mr. Adams, as secretary of state under Mr. 
Monroe, and Mr. Monroe himself, under the strong teaching of 
Mr. Adams, had favored Judicious and important internal 
improvements, which single states could not make. For twelve 
years these ideas and practices had prevailed in the government, 
and prosperity had attended it and the country. The revenues 
of the government were strong and increasing. The public 
debt occasioned by the war of 1812 and the Indian wars, was all 
paid. There was money in the treasury to be distributed 
among the states. Business was good, commerce prosperous, 
immigration active. The policy of the government for the 
twelve years of the Adams-Monroe direction gave great pros- 
perity to the country. 

But internal improvement by the general government was 
contrary to General Jackson's theory. There was danger of 
national monopoly in too great national prosperity. The power 
of the general government was to be dreaded and guarded 
against by the states. And so he with a strong hand instituted 
a new order of things. The public works, like the Cumberland 
national road and the Maysville road, he stopped by vetoing the 
bills for appropriations to continue them. There was money in 
the treasury and no way to use it ; and these roads were vastly 
important improvements, running through several states and 
benefiting the whole country; yet they must stop. 

Mr. Polk, the warm personal friend, almost the 2^'^otege of 
Jackson, took his view, and became the ardent and strong 
defender of the Jacksonian theory and policy. He had held 
different views, like most of the rising young men of that time. 
In Mr. Monroe's time, he saw the need of public improvements 
— roads, river and harbor improvements, and gave his adher- 
ence to the policy that prevailed. A pity he had not held 
on to his patriotic and statesmanlike views, so honorable to his 
young mind and consonant with his noble nature. But power- 



318 OtJR PRESIDENTS. 

ful forces were in the executive, and he yielded to them, after 
the Van Buren style. The veto of the national improvements, 
the veto of the national bank and the removal of the national 
dej)0sits from that bank to the state banks were all a part of 
President Jackson's general theory that the states are in danger 
from the monopolies and oppressions of the general government. 
Mr. Polk fell so much under the influence of Jackson and his 
party as to go completely over to their views. 

In 1835 Mr. Polk was made speaker of the Twenty-fourth 
Congress. At the next Congress he was re-elected speaker. He 
filled this responsible position with great credit to himself and 
satisfaction to Congress and the country. 

At the close of the session, March 4, 1839, Mr. Polk gave a 
farewell address to the house, in which he had served with 
signal ability through fourteen years. His deliberative mind, 
enriched with learning, reading and experience, his considerate 
respect for men, and courteous manners fitted him well for this 
trying place. 

MR. POLK THE GOVERN'OR. 

The next August Mr. Polk was made the democratic candi- 
date for governor of Tennessee, and after an unusually warm 
contest, in which he was the leading speaker in his own behalf, 
he was elected. He entered upon the discharge of the gover- 
nor's duties on the fourteenth of October, 1839. He gave an 
address on this occasion, which was regarded as one of the ablest 
and best of his life. 

Though opposed to internal improvements by the United 
States, Mr. Polk was in favor of improvements by the states; 
so in his opening address to the legislature, he advised the 
"vigorous prosecution of a judicious system of internal improve- 
ments." He also advised "a board of public works, to be com- 
posed of two or more competent and scientific men, who should 
be authorized and their duties established by. law." He was a 
man of progress, had much state pride, and would commit his 
state to all improvements it could prosecute with vigor. He 
did not seem to see that every argument for improvement by the 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 319 

state was equally good for improvement by the United States, 
and that state pride in tlie true patriot is but the root of a more 
vigorous pride of country. His political theory fanned the 
flame of a state pride to the injury of national sentiments — 
made the state an object of more personal interest and affection 
than the country. This was an evil he did not see, though 
thousands of his countrymen fully apprehended it. 

In the same message he recommended the passage of a law 
''prohibiting betting on elections," and gave many reasons for 
it which were alike creditable to his head and heart. His moral 
nature was quick and strong, and he believed legislation had 
moral interests to subserve. He would put law to the service of 
conscience as well as property. 

Mr. Polk's administration as governor through his term of 
two years, was so satisfactory as to make him the acknowledged 
head of his party in his state. Mr. Grundy, his old law teacher 
and life-long friend had died. He was now forty-six years old, 
in the full day of early manhood; had lived a discreet and well- 
preserved life; had a national experience in public life, as well 
as a wide knowledge in state affairs. He was a candidate for 
another term; but the Harrison canvass for the presidency had 
swept Tennessee with a heavy majority of the states, into the 
ranks of the whigs. The strong anti-bank, anti-tariff, anti- 
internal improvement, and pro-state doctrines and practices of 
the democratic party had produced a heavy reaction against it. 
The practical affairs of the country were disastrously deranged, 
and a new administration of public affairs was demanded by the 
people. Mr. Polk, therefore, was defeated, on purely political 
grounds, and his opponent James 0. Jones, was elected. 

Mr. Polk was again candidate for governor in 1843, but was 
again defeated. He had now a brief respite from public affairs, 
which he spent in home enjoyments and hospitalities. 

But the political life and issues of the rapidly growing 
nation were rapidly changing. The death of President Harri- 
son and the defection of President Tyler to the democratic party 
from which he had come, had lost to the whigs the fruits of 
their victory. The new question of the annexation of Texas to 



320 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

the Union, which had long been an object of southern enter- 
prise and ambition, had now come to the front. President 
Tyler and his Congress were committed to it. It was at bottom 
a pro-slavery movement, but it had a national glamour in 
adding an empire of rich virgin soil to the national domain, 
which captivated many people who did not stop to inquire into 
the bad faith and immoral policy at the bottom of annexation. 
The partisan aspect of the subject was pretty well defined. The 
whigs, for the most part, were opposed to annexation; the 
democrats in the main were in favor of it. 

The sectional aspect was about as well defined. A strong 
majority in the north were opposed to annexation; an equally 
strong majority in the south were in favor of it. It was at 
bottom a sectional matter, the child of the south. 

The democratic party had always had its heaviest majorities 
in the south. Its state-rights doctrine was a favorite southern 
doctrine. This question of annexation tended strongly to pro- 
mote the growing sectionalism which slavery had already caused. 

The coming democratic national convention to meet at Balti- 
more, in 1844, was to be shaped to this new issue. Every promi- 
nent democrat who had presidential aspirations must avow him- 
self. The prominent names likely to come before that conven- 
tion, were Martin Van Buren, of New York; Lewis Cass, of 
Michigan; Richard M. Johnson, of Kentucky; James Buchanan, 
of Pennsylvania, and Levi Woodbury, of New Hampshire. Mr. 
Van Buren was opposed to annexation, and were it not for this, 
stood the best chance of the nomination. The rest were in 
favor of annexation. 

Mr. Polk's friends, who for some years had presidential 
aspirations for him, were quick to see the possible prosjiect for 
him, and had him called out in a letter on the political issues. 
In that letter he took his stand for annexation. He was thus 
made ready for an emergency. The convention came. The 
rule of former conventions requiring a two-thirds majority to 
nominate was adopted. For several ballots Mr. Van Buren had 
a strong majority, but not two thirds. It was soon found that Mr. 
Van Buren's friends would not vote for any of the named candi- 



jAilES KNOX POLK. 321 

dates. Here was a chance for Mr. Polk's friend. On the eighth 
hallot several of them voted for him. This brought his name 
before the convention. On the ninth ballot he received nearly 
all the votes of the convention, and then was nominated by 
acclamation. 

Henry Clay, of Kentucky, was the whig candidate. The 
election returns showed Mr. Polk elected by a strong majority. 

When his name was announced as a candidate, many of the 
other party cried out in wmider, "Who is James K. Polk?" as 
though he was an unheard-of man. Now his friends could 
reply, "President elect of the United States." 

ME. POLK AS PKESIDENT. 

Taking leave of his venerable friend, Andrew Jackson, and 
receiving the congratulations of his Nashville friends at a public 
dinner, Mr. Polk, with his family and a suite of friends, repaired 
to Washington, and was inaugurated as eleventh president of 
the United States, March 4th, 1845. 

President Polk's first public business related to the great 
issue on which he was elected — the annexation of Texas. Presi- 
dent Tylers' Jast public acts were preparatory to the final act of 
annexation. President Polk instructed the United States min- 
ister in Texas to bear to the Texan government the action of 
the United States' government. The people of Texas accepted 
the offer of annexation, held a convention, formed a constitu- 
tion and came to the door of Congress with documents in hand, 
ready to be admitted. In his first annual message to Congress, 
President Polk informed Congress and the country of the atti- 
tude of Texas, and suggested the importance of speedily passing 
a recognizing act, and of receiving Texas with her senators, 
representatives, governor and people into the United States. 

Now Texas added another to the pro-slavery states, and 
increased the pro-slavery strength in Congress by its senators 
and representatives. It had cost a war to get it, many lives, and 
much money; but the worst of the war was not over. Simply 
because the United States were strong enough to do it, and the 
31 



322 OUR PKESIDENTS. 

South was greedy enough for slave territory, they robbed Mexico 
of it. 

To hold the new state against its old owner, General Taylor 
had been ordered, with the United States army, to occupy the 
territory between the Neuces river and the Kio Grande. It was 
called "The Army of Occupation." Commodore Conner, of 
the United States navy, was ordered to be with the naval forces 
of the government, in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, adja- 
cent to the territory occupied by the army. Mexico had not 
only been despoiled of Texas, but she must now be whipped for 
objecting to it. The "Army of Occupation" moved forward to 
the east bank of the Rio Grande and planted its batteries before 
a Mexican town. A collision was brought on and war was 
declared which cost some twenty thousand lives and a vast 
amount of money. Mexico was terribly punished; her territory 
laid waste; her capital occupied; and then the demand made 
upon her to pay for the war, which she could only do by surren- 
dering to the United States, New Mexico and Upper and Lower 
California, — an empire of territory of vast dimensions. The 
l^eople of the north were shocked at this immense increase of 
territory open to slavery, and at the way in which it was obtained. 
Sharp discussion followed; fierce altercation; plans for compro- 
mise, for provisos, all of which ended as they began. This 
great movement for southern territory which was so suc- 
cessful, really awakened the north to the real evil of slavery as 
it had never been awakened before. It was the beginning of 
the end of that institution. By the annexation of Texas and 
what followed it, the seeds of the republican party in the north 
were planted and the spirit of resistance to the aggressions of 
slavery was aroused. 

By laws which politicians do not control, the results of this 
great acquisition of slave territory, were absolutely reversed from 
those intended by its promulgators. The southern party was 
over greedy. Pro-slavery society was slow-growing and unenter- 
prising. It could hardly fill up the old states; it did not need 
new. Its greed of territory and power aroused the north to 
opposition. Its increase of territory augmented immigration to 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 323 

the north and enterprise in the north. Anti-slavery settlers 
pushed westward; took Nebraska; took Kansas; got possession 
of Upper California; pushed down into Lower California; urged 
their way into St. Louis, and held northern Missouri; got a 
foothold in Western Virginia; and then backed the whole line 
of their invasion upon slave territory, with tiers of new and 
enterprising free states. Then they filled the territory they 
settled with productive farms, machinery, shops, schools, vil- 
lages, cities, wealth, and all the power these have in them. 
They over-grew the slower society of the south by the more 
productive forces of free society. This was a development the 
annexationists had not provided for ; it came by the laws of 
social growth ; by business enterprize ; by immigration, which 
free society welcomes and absorbs ; by education and the free 
play of human energies. The very institution Avliich the south 
nursed with such passionate fondness, burdened and crippled 
her, and prevented her from going forward and occupying the 
territories she so eagerly acquired. If men had been philos- 
ophers, they would have foreseen the results that have come, as 
the inevitable work of social laws. A great world of blame, pas- 
sion, prejudice, abuse, and misjudgments, could have been saved, 
if men would have seen that in the development of the social 
forces, freedom will always outdo slavery. This Mr. Polk and 
his administration did not see. In all his state papers, he labored 
to show that Mexico was the leading offender, and made it neces- 
sary, in honor and Justice for the United States, to punish her 
and take her territory. It was the greatest misuse of his excel- 
lent talents, that he had ever put them to. But it was a part of 
the partisan and sectional politics to which he had committed 
his fortunes. 

President Polkas administration was popular with his party 
and section. He had carried out the programme with which 
he started, and could congratulate the country that by the 
annexation of Texas, and the Mexican war, he had greatly 
increased its domain. What untold wealth was in the mines of 
the mountains he had secured, he did not know or dream. What 
busy populations would in forty years dwell on the soil he had 



324 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

brought to the nation, he did not conjecture. He was one 'of 
those who "builded better than he knew." He phmned for the 
extension of slavery ; the forces in the growth of civilization 
extended the area, of freedom. He, and those who sustained 
him in his work, anticipated a great growth of southern power 
on the broad plantations of Texas; the march of events has put 
the northern and southern man side by side on the prolific soil 
of the " Lone Star State," to promote, not the glory of a section, 
but of the nation. He sought to magnify the state, and develop 
state loyalty, but a wise Providence has turned his work to the 
glory of the common country, north and south. 

He loved his country, no doubt, but that love was distem- 
j)ered by theories which set in his mind a section before the 
whole. 

The lessons of time have taught us all, north and south, east 
and west, to be broader than we used to be ; and to Join hands 
in making a country whose great heart shall beat for the whole 
of humanity. By and by it shall turn out that we all, like Pres- 
ident Polk, are building better than we know ; for the country 
in which we shall glory will be the world free and happy, in 
the spirit of the American republic. 

On the third of March, 1849, Mr. Polk retired from office. 
The next day was Sunday. On the fiitli he assisted in inaugu- 
rating his successor. General Taylor, and the same evening, in 
company with his family, started on his journey homeward. 

They took a round-about course to visit the leading southern 
cities, in all of which they were received with demonstrations of 
pleasure by the people. In due time they reached their home, 
supplied with the comforts of taste and wealth. Though in 
youth his health was not the firmest, Mr. Polk had been so 
temperate and judicious in the care of himself, that he had long 
enjoyed excellent health. He returned to his home at fifty-four 
years of age. It was a year of cholera at New Orleans. On his 
way up the river, he felt the symptoms of that disease. Not 
many days after he reached there, the cholera took fast hold of 
him, and after a short sickness, he died peacefully on the 
fifteenth of June, 1849. 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 325 



^HE ilRAVE OF HaMES K. f OLK. 

Nashville, which was the adopted home of Mr. Polk, is now 
the resting place of the honored remains of President Polk. 
It is, so to speak, his cemetery, his permanent home. Not in 
"the city of the dead," but in the city of the living, his form 
reposes. The sights and sounds of life with which he was 
familiar are still about his lowly bed of rest. Beautiful for situ- 
ation is this thriving city of the living, which rises gracefully 
above the bluff's of the river to be crowned in its height with its 
elegant capitol. It is enriched with many elegant homes and 
many institutions of learning, both for white and colored youth. 
It is the Athens of the south. The Cumberland river, with its 
bluffs and promontories and variegated banks, sweeps by it ; 
while far and wide from its capitol stretches, every way, delight- 
ful scenery. Almost in sight, twelve miles from the city, is the 
Hermitage and grave of President Jackson. These two presi- 
dents, adopted sons of Tennessee, warm personal friends in life, 
sleep almost together in death. The generations rising up 
around them who look upon their tombs and read their histories 
may be quickened by them to add new honors to the country 
they served and which honored them with its highest confidence. 
Over the grave is a limestone monument, designed by William 
Strickland, the architect of the capitol. It is about twelve feet 
square and of a similar height. It is in Grecian-Doric style, a 
cover or roof supported with columns. On the architrave of 
the eastern front is the inscription : 

aiiiiiiiiiiiilililililililiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiliiiiililiiilililililililiiiiiMiiiB 

I Eleventh President of the United States. | 
I Born November 3, 1795, I 

I Died June 15, 1849. | 

eiiiiiiiiiiiiaiiilililiiilicililiiililiiiiiliiiiiiiiiiiiii>i>iilililiiiiiliiiiiiililiiii:iiiil>liiilililililililililiiiliiiiiiiiiiiii 



326 OUR PKESIDENTS. 

On the eastern and southern faces of the monument is the 
following record : 

THE MORTAL REMAmS OF 

JAMES K. POLK 

Are resting in the vault beneath. 

He was born in Mechlenburg county, North Carolina, 

And emigrated with his father, 

Samuel Polk, 

To Tennessee, in 1806. 

The beauty of virtue was illustrated in his life ; the excellence of 

Christianity was exemplified in his death. 

By his public policy he defined, established and extended 

the boundaries of his country. 

He planted the laws of the American Union on the shores of the Pacific. 

His influence and his counsels tended to organize 

the National Treasury on the principles of the Constitution, 

and to apply the rule of Freedom to Navigation, Trade and Industry. 

His life was devoted to the public service. 

He was elevated successively to the first places of the State 

and Federal Governments ; 

A member of the General Assembly; 

A member of Congress; 

Chairman of the most important Congressional Committees; 

Speaker of the House of Representatives; 

Governor of Tennessee, and President of the United States. 





CHCP'tJS.a EKPREESSLV TOR WEAVEh's " LIVES AND GRAVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS 



A-A**Jfc A** A-<kAT*'K^"«fc*^Jfc^ 




CHAPTER Xin. 



ZAOHAEY TAYLOR. 



Twelfth President of the United States. 



^fla^j).,^ 




p F the thirteen presidents in the first sixty years of the 
United States government, seven were born in Vir- 
ginia ; so it became common to call Virginia the 
"Mother of Presidents." No state was more forward in 
the revolution and for independence ; no state furnished 
more soldiers, officers, and statesmen ; no state gave more 
patriotic or brilliant talents to the councils of the colonies ; 
no state had more weight in the whole movement that inaugu- 
rated the republic, than Virginia. Massachusetts and Virginia 
stood together at the front. Different in the manner of settle- 
ment, class of people and style of life, they were yet one in 
political sentiment and national aspiration. Massachusetts was 
the first to suffer; yet Virginia, in a noble sympathy, made the 
suffering her own. Massachusetts nominated the great son of 
Virginia as commander-in-chief of the American forces. Though 
far away, her quick Judgment saw his great worth, and begged 
to trust her all to his wise leadership. When appointed, Wash- 
ington hastened to Massachusetts, as though it were his home, 
and left it not till he had delivered it from the oppressor. 
Henry, in Virginia, sounded one of the first notes of the war of 
independence, which rang through all the colonies like the clarion 
of deliverance; and Jefferson^s quick pen wrote the immortal 
Declaration of Independence. Massachusetts, with a wisdom 

33T 



328 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

and fortitude half divine, worked out the patterns of nation- 
ality, while she fought off the oppressor. These two great 
colonies must ever be held the two elder sisters that led all the 
rest to the achievements of state and national existence. 

The seven Virginia presidents, in their order, were: Wash- 
ington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Harrison, Tyler and Taylor. 

Virginia has long been called, the "Old Dominion." In her 
old estate she was grandly productive of great talent, particularly 
talent for statesmanship. 

It is to be hoped that in her new estate, she may be nourishing 
the scions of the old stock, which shall give the country more 
and still more, through all the generations, such men as honored 
her and the nation in the past. 

BIRTH a:n'd boyhood. 

Zachary Taylor was born November 24, 1784, in Orange 
county, Virginia. He was the third child of Colonel Richard 
Taylor, who was an active patriot and soldier of the revolution. 
Little is given of his father's history, only that he became 
colonel in the army under Washington. This indicates some- 
thing of his ability and standing. 

Like many other Virginians, Colonel Taylor turned his face 
westward, soon after the revolution, to hel]) settle up the rich 
lands occupied only by the Avild animals and savage Indians. 
Washington did much to j)romote this westward movement. In 
his early life he had become familiar with much of the territory 
on the Ohio and Lake Erie, and saw the possibilities for civiliza- 
tion there opened to the human tides that would soon flow that 
Avay. While Zachary was an infant. Colonel Taylor, in 1785, 
moved with his family to Kentucky, a few miles out from what 
is now the city of Louisville, and there built his cabin and 
founded his home. This year, 1884, is the hundredth anniver- 
sary of Zachary's birth; next year, the hundredth of his removal 
to the western wilds. Did his father, did Washington, did any 
of the men of that time, foresee, or even dream of, what a 
hundred years would bring to these lands of the forest, the wild 
animals and the Indian? Did they conceive of Louisville, Cin- 



ZACHARY TAYLOR. 329 

ciniiati, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, St, Louis and 
New Orleans, and all between and beyond them in the brief 
period of one century? Were any so fanatical on American 
development, as to anticipate what has really come to pass? 
The American revolution dnd American respect for humanity, 
gave such an impetus to men's desire for imjirovement, that the 
eyes of millions of Europe's cramjied and oppressed people were 
turned to the room and freedom and comfort offered to them in 
America. How much greater was the work of Washington and 
his compatriots, than they conceived! May it not be as true 
that the good work of this generation may be as much greater 
than we conceive? Who can fathom the efficiency that Provi- 
dence gives to the good works of men? 

Zachary Taylor grew up in the wilderness. He was educated 
to the use of tlie axe, the hoe and the plow; to the use of the 
rifle, the capture of the wild beast and the defense against the 
Indians. This education of the forest is far greater than many 
suppose. It develoiJS strength, resolution, fortitude, shrewdness, 
sagacity, courage, foresight, independence of judgment, prompt- 
ness of action, anticipation of danger; in a word, all the quali- 
ties of mind necessary to a frontiersman, to a remarkable degree. 

To a quick, bold, hardy, clear-headed boy like Zachary 
Taylor this education of the woods was not without its grand 
results. If it did not give polish, it gave strength; if it did not 
acquaint him with the world, it gave him a knowledge of the 
forces of nature and of himself, and of that part of mankind 
that he came in contact with. It was an education that made 
him a man mighty in his field of action. When about six years 
old he had a private teacher by the name of Ayers, who 
instructed him in the rudiments of English learning. Some- 
thing, no doubt, was gained from the rude schools of his 
neighborhood, while a youth. The help of his parents added 
something, and the books brought from Virginia contributed 
something; but, in the main, his was the education of face to 
face contact with things. The work and business of his father^s 
large plantation and the contact with the wild world around him 
were his principal schools. 



330 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

ZACHARY TAYLOR THE SOLDIER. 

His elder brother, Hancock, a lieutenant in the United 
States army, died in 1808, when Zacharj was twenty-four years 
of age. His father secured the commission for him. 

His father's military career, his reminiscences of the revo- 
lutionary war, Hancock's interest in the army, followed by 
Zachary's desire to take his place after his death, indicate a 
military tendency in the family. 

He soon joined the army at New Orleans as lieutenant in the 
seventh regiment of United States infantry. 

In 1810 he was married to Miss Margaret Smith, of Mary- 
land. The next November he was promoted to the rank of 
captain. In 1811 he was given the command of Fort Knox, on 
the Wabash, in the vicinity of Vincennes. This was at the 
time Tecumseh and his brother, the Prophet, were seeking to 
arouse and ally all the Indian tribes in opposition to the 
further advance of the whites upon Indian territory. The 
Prophet had established his headquarters on the Tij)pecanoe, a 
branch of the Wabash, and formed there an Indian town, where the 
chiefs and leading warriors gathered for consultation and action. 
The threatening danger from this Indian gathering and hostility 
made it imjoortant that all the outposts which had been planted 
should be firmly held. Captain Taylor was sent out on this 
mission against the Prophet, to watch him and hold him in check. 

In 1812 the war with England broke out, and the Indians 
were made all the more bold and determined. There was still 
a more advanced post which General Harrison had established 
the year before, and was called by his* name, seventy-five miles 
from Vincennes and fifty beyond any white settlement. It was 
hastily made, and consisted of a row of log huts as one side of a 
square, the other three sides being defended by rows of high 
pickets. At each end of the row of huts was a block-house. To 
this fort Captain Taylor was ordered with a comjiany of infantry 
of some fifty men, illy provided both for comfort and defense. 

On the third of September, two of his men were murdered 
not far from the fort. Late in the afternoon of the fourth, 



X 



ZACHARY TAYLOR. 331 

thirty or forty Indians came from the Prophet^s town, bearing a 
white flag. They were chiefs of different tribes. They told 
Captain Taylor that the principal chief would make him a 
speech the next morning, and that they had come for something 
to eat. 

Captain Taylor was too shrewd to be deceived by their craft. 
As soon as they were out of sight, he had everything in\t in 
order for an attack. Many of his men were sick, yet they were 
all provided with arms and commanded to sleep on them. 
About eleven o'clock at night the garrison was aroused by the 
firing of a sentinel. The Indians were there in force, and rushed 
to the attack with their deafening yells and war-whoops. The 
firing on both sides became general. The fierce yells of the 
savages who filled the woods and crowded about the fort, firing 
rapidly, made night hideous. Soon it was learned that the 
savages had set fire to one of the block-houses. The flames 
spread rapidly, and the Indians redoubled their yells and work 
of death. The women inside, for there were a few women in 
the camp, added their screams to the horrid tumult of the scene. 
The captain ordered buckets of water to be put on the fire, but 
many of his men were too much excited to execute orders. He 
had to personally superintend the putting out of the fire and 
repairing the breach. There were quantities of wliisky stored 
in the block-house which got on fire and increased the fierce- 
ness of the flames. Altogether it was a scene of horror. Yet 
Captain Taylor so controlled his men as to keep them at their 
posts and their work, keep the fire under control, and hold the 
desperate savages so at bay that they made no inroad, till the 
morning light sent them fiying from the sure aim of his men. 

There were but two men wounded and one killed, while the 
Indian loss was heavy. The failure of the fire to open a way 
into the fort, made the defeat of the Indians inevitable with so 
cool a leader in the fort as CajDtain Taylor. 

For this heroic defense of this exposed fort. Captain Taylor 
was promoted to the rank of major, by brevet. 

Major Taylor continued in tlie service in the vicinity till 
1814, when he was put at the head of troops in Missouri. 



332 OUR PRESIDEJS^TS, 

The next December lie was ordered to return to Vincennes, 
to have charge of the forces in Indiana, where he continued till 
the close of the war. 

After peace was declared, he resigned his commission and 
retired to his farm near Louisville. 

In 1816, he was reinstated in the army with his original rank 
of major, and placed in command of Fort Crawford, at the 
mouth of Fox river, which empties into Green bay. 

His command was changed from place to place in the west 
till the breaking out of the Black Hawk war in 1832, when he 
was again called to active service in the field. 

In 1832, he was promoted to the rank of Colonel, and served 
under General Atkinson in his various campaigns against the 
Indians. He commanded the regulars in the battle of Wiscon- 
sin, which resulted in the capture of Black Hawk and the 
Prophet, and the termination of the war. 

The Seminole war in Florida still dragged along. For years 
and years it had been a vexation and an expense. The deep 
everglades of Florida afforded retreats for the Indians, where 
they lived in safety and from which they came out at their 
pleasure, to annoy and destroy. Different generals had been 
given command, and much blood and treasure had been appar- 
ently wasted. Even General Jackson had tried his skillful hand 
at it, and gave it up. 

Now Colonel Taylor was ordered to this disheartening com- 
mand. He concluded at once not to let the Indians conduct 
the war any longer in their own way. That way had been to 
avoid a battle, and skirmish, creep up in ambush to sentinels, 
outposts, foraging parties, stragglers, and kill, destroy and steal. 
They destroyed our forces in detail, and were not long in deci- 
mating an army and sending it back for recruits. Colonel Taylor 
resolved to force them to fight liis way, which was in open 
battle. His plan was to penetrate their jungles and find their 
headquarters and to force them to defend them. He made the 
needful preparation, and went in where white foot had never trod 
before. Following their trails, he crossed rivers, bayous, bogs, 
swamps; cut his way through tangles; bridged, waded, made 



ZACHARY TAYLOE. 333 

roads ; taking his army in force, and bringing along provisions 
and hospital stores, bound to sweep the dismal regions clear of 
savages. He was shrewder than any Indian, and knew his game. 

After something like a hundred and fifty miles of this boring 
into the wilds, he came to the vicinity of his enemy. His lair 
was on a gentle elevation of dry land, in the midst of a vast 
swamp. It was an island in a morass. Here were the Indian 
stores, cattle, horses, everything they had stolen for years. In 
this retreat they had believed themselves safe. It was called 
the Okeechobee. 

On the twenty-third of December, 1837, Colonel Taylor led 
his army through the swamp into the face of the foe he had so 
long hunted for. A general engagement was brought on, which 
lasted about three hours, when the Indians gave way and scat- 
tered into the swamp. Both sides suffered about equally. 
Colonel Taylor lost thirty men and had one hundred and 
twelve wounded. The wounded were carried back on rude 
litters made from dried hides found at the Indian camp, fast- 
ened to poles. In Colonel Taylor's report he says : " This col- 
umn in six weeks penetrated one hundred and fifty miles into 
the enemy's country; opened roads and constructed bridges and 
causeways, when necessary, on the greater portion of the route; 
established two depots and the necessary defenses for the same, 
and finally overtook and beat the enemy in his strongest position. 
The results of which movements and battle have been the cap- 
ture of thirty of the hostiles, the coming in and surrendering of 
more than a hundred and fifty Indians and negroes, mostly the 
former, including the chiefs Oulatoochee, Tustanuggee, and 
other principal men ; the capturing and driving out of the 
country six hundred head of cattle, upward of one hundred 
head of horses, besides obtaining a thorough knowledge of the 
country through which we operated, a great proportion of 
which was entirely unknown, except to the enemy. '^ 

Colonel Taylor was employed some two years in this service 
in the everglades, swamps and wilds of Florida. He brought to 
an end the long Seminole war. The Indians never recovered 
from the blow given them at the Okeechobee. ' A few of them 



334 OUR PRESIDEKTS. 

did private mischief for awhile, but gradually disappeared west 
of the Mississippi and coalesced with otlier tribes. 

For this signal service Colonel Taylor was breveted with the 
rank of brigadier-general. 

General Taylor, at his own request, was relieved from further 
service in Florida and given command of the department of the 
southwest, which embraced Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and 
Georgia. He made his headquarters at Fort Jessnp, in Louisi- 
ana, and purchased a plantation near Baton Eouge, to which 
he removed his family. Here, in this department, he remained 
for five years in the faithful discharge of the duties of his 
position, almost buried from a knowledge of the world. 

General Taylor had now fought through three Indian wars — 
the Tecumseh war, the Black-Hawk war and the Seminole 
war — had done much hard service, and seen much privation 
and suffering. The good of life had almost entirely been sacri- 
ficed to his country, on these out-posts, as life's good is usually 
understood. Now a new experience is about to open to him. 

In the spring of 1845 Congress passed a joint resolution 
annexing Texas to the Union. Texas had been a scene of con- 
flict for many years. It had declared itself independent of 
Mexico, and fought to maintain its position. It became an 
indepent republic and was called the "Lone Star," because it 
was a single state. Then it asked for annexation to the United 
States, and Congress heard the request with more than willing 
ear, expecting it would bring on a war with Mexico. General 
Taylor, being the nearest commanding general to Texas, was 
asked to have his troojis in readiness for service on the western 
Texan border. He was not commanded to go, yet it was made 
clear to him that the government wanted him on the frontier. 
It was, morever, made clear to him that the government would 
be pleased if he would so annoy the Mexicans on the border as 
to bring on a conflict. Mexico was weak and treacherous, and 
would never be submissive to the loss of Texas till she Avas 
whipped into submission. Knowing what was desired of him by 
his government, yet receiving no direct command, he could 
only wait. But after awhile Secretary Marcy ordered him to 



ZACHARY TAYLOR. 335 

repair to the Neuces river and take up a position of observation 
at Corpus Christi, on the toestern bank. In August he took liis 
position at the designated place with fifteen hundred men ; in 
November his army was increased to four thousand men. Hints 
came frequently from Washington that he ought to move for- 
ward to the Rio Grande, two hundred miles further west. But 
he was a soldier and obeyed orders from authority, not hints 
from anywhere. 

The situation was about this. Mexico held that the Neuces 
river was the western boundary of Texas. By her claim General 
Taylor was already on her territory with an armed force, which 
was a cause of war. But as yet she did nothing about it, and he 
had jjeaceable possession. The southern people of the Union, 
in the main, coveted the territory to the Rio Grande. The United 
States as a whole was covetous. The people generally wanted 
all the territory they could get. They were not i^articularly 
scrupulous about how they got it. A few people, especially 
at the North, and more especially those opposed to slavery, 
objected to any extension of territory southwestward. In due 
time it became apparent to the government that the people 
would sustain its movement to the Rio Grande, and General 
Taylor was ordered forward, and Commodore Conner to the 
mouth of the river with his naval force. 

On his march across the prairies of the region between the 
Neuces and the Rio Grande, General Taylor found a Mexican 
force drawn up on the western bank of the Colorado river, but 
too weak to offer any resistance. The Mexican commander 
simply protested against an invasion of Mexican territory. But 
Taylor pushed on and was soon on the east bank of the Rio 
Grande opposite the Mexican city of Matamoras. Here General 
Taylor built Fort Brown, the guns of which pointed into the 
public square of Matamoras, within easy range. Twelve miles 
south was Point Isabel on the gulf, selected as the supply station 
from the ships of the navy. 

General Taylor blockaded Brazos Santiago, the port of 
Matamoras, and ordered off two supply ships of the Mexicans. 
He acted as though on his own territory. 



336 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

A deputy quarter-master was killed not far from the camp. 
A band of United States soldiers in pursuit of those who had 
killed him, were met by a band of Mexicans and several shots 
exchanged. Before they reached the cam23 another band of 
Mexicans fired upon them. A few of the United States cavalry 
on an excursion, were attacked and several killed. So, little by 
little, a general conflict was brought on. 

Point Isabel was threatened with a force of fifteen hundred 
Mexicans. General Taylor, in force, went to its relief. Fort 
Brown, left in charge of Major Brown and a small force, was 
fired upon from the Mexican ranks in Matamoras. The Mexi- 
cans kej)t up the bombardment for several days. They sent a 
force of six thousand across the river to surround it and attack 
it in the rear. Major Brown was killed. 

General Taylor, hearing of the attack, started back with 
twenty-two hundred men. On reaching the vicinity of the fort 
he found the Mexican army drawn up on the open prairie to 
dispute his further progress. He at once arranged his army of 
about one third the number, in battle order. The armies stood 
for twenty minutes, facing each other in silence. At length a 
Mexican battery fired a single shot, which opened the conflict. 
It was chiefly a battle of artillery and lasted till night closed it. 
The tall prairie grass took fire and added to the fierceness of the 
scene. 

The Mexicans retired and took up a well-selected position a 
few miles distant. This was the battle of Palo Alto, about 
which great things were said. Four Americans were killed and 
thirty-two wounded. The Mexican loss was two hundred and 
sixty-two. 

The next morning General Taylor pushed on in pursuit of 
his departed enemy, which he found some three or four miles 
away, posted in a ravine called Easaca de la Palma. The position 
was in the midst of a thicket of dwarf oaks. Here Arista, the 
Mexican general, thought to make a firm stand. The battle 
began with artillery, and soon engaged the infantry and cavalry. 
It was hotly contested. But the superior intelligence of General 
Taylor's men made their work more efficient, and the Mexican 



^ACHAKY TAYLOR, 33'J' 

line broke and gave way, pursued by Taylor's troops for some 
distance. General Taylor's loss was about one hundred and fifty, 
while the Mexicans are said to have lost a thousand in killed, 
wounded and missing. 

The news of these two victories was trumpeted round the 
land, rousing the martial valor of the people to a high enthu- 
siasm. "On to the halls of the Montezumas," was the war cry 
now. The opposition to the war was overwhelmed in the 
tumult of the war excitement. Congress authorized the presi- 
dent to accept fifty thousand volunteers. Brigadier-General 
Taylor was promoted to the rank of major-general by brevet. 
He became a hero at once. Congress and several state legisla- 
tures passed resolutions of compliment. The papers lauded him. 
The people talked about him. The title his soldiers sometimes 
called him by, " Old Kough and Eeady/' sounded euphonious to 
the people who were hungering for a military hero. The parties 
interested in the war and the extension of territory it was meant 
to secure, had an easy time in kindling a flame of patriotic 
enthusiasm over the glory of American arms. 

On the eighteenth of May, a few days after the two battles, 
having obtained pontoon bridges. General Taylor crossed the 
Rio Grande, unopposed, and took possession of the city. He 
was now on Mexican territory, and in possession of a Mexican 
city, by common consent. War was declared by his action. 
The thing so long desired and planned for — war with Mexico — 
was now a reality. That part of the country which favored it 
was ablaze, and the light of that blaze was pretty much all 
there was to be seen. 

President Polk hastened to write to him, in transmitting his 
title of major-general: 

"It gives me sincere pleasure, immediately upon the receipt 
of official intelligence from the scene of your achievements, to 
confer upon you, by and with the advice and consent of the 
senate, this testimonial of the estimate which your government 
places upon your skill and gallantry. 

" To yourself, and the brave officers and soldiers under your 
command, the gratitude oi the country is justly due. Our army 
23 



338 OUE PRESIDENTS. 

have fully sustained their deservedly high reputation, and added 
another bright page to the history of American valor and patri- 
otism. They have won new laurels for themselves and their 
country." 

But while the government and people were in this frenzy of 
delight, General Taylor was anxious and restless. He had now 
Fort Brown, Point Isabel and Matamoras, all in his possession, 
and must hold them. General Arista had proposed a cessation 
of hostilities, till the two governments could settle the question 
of boundary, and he had refused it. He was in the enemy's 
country, with hardly men enough to hold his position, while the 
country expected him to go on to the capital. And yet he must 
wait here for reinforcements. And he did wait three months. 

Late in July the reinforcements, supplies, and sixteen hun- 
dred mules, to carry the luggage, came and made it possible to 
move forward. His plan was to go to Monterey and take that. 
Of course the long delay had given the Mexicans ample time to 
prepare to meet him. 

It was generally supposed that the Mexicans would not 
attempt a strong opposition at Monterey, but would tempt the 
Americans farther into the heart of the country, and General 
Taylor was of this opinion. But as they neared the city the 
people told them of the opposition they would meet. As 
they approached the city they found it a military garrison. 
The houses were of stone and flat roofed, and the soldiers were 
posted on the roofs. Every street was barricaded, and every 
preparation which Mexican ingenuity could invent was used to 
defend the city. After viewing the situation, so as to under- 
stand it. General Worth was sent with a strong force around to 
the opposite side of the city to begin the attack. The city was 
defended by ten thousand men, about two thirds of them regu- 
lar troops. General Taylor had six thousand two hundred and 
twenty men. 

The attack was begun by General Worth on the twenty-first 
of September. General Taylor opened upon the city from his 
side. By evening both parts of the army had gained a foot- 
hold in the city. The next day the Mexicans had withdrawn 



2ACHARY TAYLOR. 339 

from before Taylor, and not much was clone by his division. 
Worth pressed forward and attacked and carried the Bishop's 
Palace, which was one of the most strongly fortified positions. 
On the twenty-third both divisions pressed the attack with 
great force. The next morning, the twenty-fourth, prepara- 
tions for capitulation were made, and before night Monterey, 
with its munitions of war, was in the hands of General Taylor. 
General Ampudia, with his Mexican force, was allowed to retire. 
*The loss of the Americans was one hundred and twenty killed 
and three hundred and sixty-eight wounded. The Mexican loss 
is not known. Here was another victory for General Taylor, 
which was sounded through the country witli the greatest enthu- 
siasm. Those who had instigated the war did not fail to make 
the most of their new ojiportunity to carry the popular thought 
from the cause and purpose of the war to the glory of the 
national arms. The battle no doubt was a fierce one, and was 
conducted with great skill and courage. 

After this battle, General Taylor took possession of the 
smaller places about Monterey, and the country in the vicinity. 

Santa Anna had by this time been recalled to the presidency 
of Mexico, and Parades deposed. Santa Anna was made com- 
mander-in-chief of the Mexican forces, with the power of dicta- 
tor. He at once set about raising all the forces and using all 
the power of Mexico to resist the invader. Before December, 
he had gathered an army of twenty thousand men, at San Luis 
Potosi, which he fortified according to his best skill, and pro- 
vided with ample military stores. 

In the meantime. General Taylor had been superseded in the 
general command, by General Winfield Scott. 

General Scott fixed his attention on Vera Cruz as the point 
of chief importance, and withdrew some of General Taylor's 
experienced soldiers. As early as February, recruits were 
obtained to fill the jilaces of those taken away, and General Tay- 
lor resolved to move toward Santa Anna. On the twentieth he 
reached Agua Nueva, some thirty miles from Monterey. Here 
he learned tbat Santa Anna was approaching with a force of 
twenty thousand men, some tliirty miles away. He at oUce 



340 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

resolved to choose liis battle-ground and wait for his adversary. 
On the twenty-first, he moved to his chosen position, a little in 
front of the hacienda of Bnena Vista, seven miles south of Sal- 
tillo. Before arrangements could be completed on the morning 
of the twenty-second, the advance line of Santa Anna was in 
sight. At eleven o'clock Santa Anna sent a summons to sur- 
render at discretion. He received for answer that General Tay- 
lor did not surrender. Very soon after, skirmishing began, but 
no general fighting. The next morning, the twenty-third, the 
battle became general, which lasted with varying fortunes for 
more than two days. On the twenty-sixth, Santa Anna with- 
drew ; and on the twenty-seventh General Taylor returned to his 
former camp at Agua Nueva. 

The strength of the Mexican army was stated by Santa Anna, 
in his summons, to be twenty thousand men. The American 
army engaged was three hundred and thirty-four officers and 
four thousand four hundred and twenty-five men. The Amer- 
ican loss was two hundred and sixty-seven killed, four hundred 
and fifty-six wounded, and twenty-three missing. The Mexican 
loss in killed, wounded and missing was supposed to be over one 
thousand five hundred. In its results, the victory was more 
decided than any gained before, and gave greater enthusiasm 
to the country. As a consequence, the glory of conquest filled 
many minds, and General Taylor grew into a military genius. 

This closed General Taylor's military career. It had been 
one of uniform success. Whatever foe he had met, he had con- 
quered. He had mastered every position he had occupied. He 
had not left Mexico, before he began to be talked of for pres- 
ident. 

PRESIDENT TAYLOK. 

As soon as General Taylor could close up the affairs of his 
command he returned to his plantation in Mississippi, receiving 
the congratulations of the jieople on the way. It became 
evident very soon that he would not be allowed to rest. The 
papers and the talk of the people were full of the exploits of the 
hero of four Mexican fields. 



ZACHARY TAYLOR. 341 

In June, 1848, the national convention of whigs met in 
Philadeljiliia. The name of General Taylor was presented as a 
candidate and urged with great zeal. The success of a military 
candidate in General Harrison had not been forgotten. The 
need of a hero to carry the masses, and the certainty that Gen- 
eral Taylor Avas the hero of a vast multitude of voters, were too 
important matters to be overlooked. No matter if he knew 
nothing about politics; no matter if he were not a statesman; 
no matter if he had not voted for forty years, he could get the 
votes to elect; and that was the principal thing, the party man- 
agers would see to the rest. So on the third vote he was made 
the nominee of the convention, with Millard Fillmore, of New 
York, as the candidate for vioe-president. 

General Taylor did not seek, but rather dreaded the promo- 
tion which the majority of the party desired to give him. He 
knew little of statesmanship and was satisfied to serve his 
country as a soldier. "The canvass was an exciting one," and 
resulted in making General Zachary Taylor twelfth president of 
the United States. On the fourth of March, 1849, he was 
inaugurated, with Millard Fillmore as vice-president. 

In Congress the democrats had a majority. The question of 
slavery was the principal one that disturbed the country. Cali- 
fornia applied for admission into the Union. The southern 
democracy opposed it. Texas claimed a portion of New Mexico, 
and threatened to take forcible possession, but the question of 
the prohibition of slavery was in the way. Neither the north or 
the south could do as it desired, because of this slavery question. 
The whole question was discussed under Clay's compromise 
measures. 

An attempt was made from some southern ports to revolu- 
tionize the island of Cuba. President Taylor issued a vigorous 
proclamation against it, which was generally approved. On the 
fourth of July, 1850, President Taylor attended the laying of 
the corner-stone of tlie national monument to Washington. 
The heat of the day, it is believed, brought on a sickness of 
Avhich he died on the ninth. His last words were: ''I am not 
afraid to die; I am ready; I have endeavored to do my duty." 



342 OUE PKESIDENTS. 

General Scott thus sketched his character: "With a good 
store of common sense, General Taylor's mind had not been 
enlarged by reading or much converse with the world. Eigidity 
of ideas Avas the consequence. The frontier and small military 
posts had been his home. Hence he was quite ignorant for his 
rank, and quite bigoted in his ignorance. His simplicity was 
childlike, and with innumerable prejudices, amusing and incor- 
rigible, well suited to the tender age. Thus, if a man, however 
respectable, chanced to wear a coat of an unusual color, or his hat 
a little on one side of his head, or an officer to have a corner of his 
handkerchief dangling from an outside coat pocket — in any such 
case this critic held the offender to be a coxcomb (perhaps some- 
thing worse), whom he would not, to use his oft-repeated 
phrase, 'touch with a pair of tongs.' * * * Yet this old 
soldier and neophite statesman had the true basis of a great 
character — pure, uncorrupted morals, combined with indomit- 
able courage. Kind, sincere and hospitable in a plain way, he 
had no vice but prejudice, many friends, and left behind him 
not an enemy in the world." 



'f HE ilRAVE OF lACHARY 'W AYLOR 

President Taylor found no rest for his body during his loyal 
and faithful life. He served his country like a true soldier at 
the call of duty, wherever that call led him; and where his ser- 
vice was he found a home. His country was his home. His 
body has found no long continued repose since his spirit left it. 
It was at first buried in the cemetery at Washington, where, if 
it had remained, it would constantly have reminded those who 
should visit it of the last high service he rendered his country in 
the most exalted position that any American citizen can attain. 
It seemed the fitting place to remain, within sight and sound of 
the capitol of the country for which he lived and in the service 
of which he died. 



ZACIIARY TAYLOR. . 343 

But family love claimed it, and it was removed from the 
capital to the Taylor homestead, where his early life had been 
spent and where the bodies of his family rested, five miles from 
Louisville, Kentucky. Here for a number of years it rested 
again. But after a while the larger public interest in General 
and President Taylor in that vicinity of the state, claimed the 
body for the cemetery at Louisville ; and as the old burying 
l^lace in the country had become a neglected waste, grown up to 
weeds, grass and bushes, fences rotted and falling and grave- 
stones tilted and broken, because there were none to look after 
it, and the cattle and horses often roamed in it at will. Mr. 
Eichard Taylor, a nephew of the president, removed the 
body to Cave Hill cemetery at Louisville. Here a plain slab 
indicated for a few years the resting place of President Taylor's 
mortal remains. 

But he belonged to Kentucky, and state love and pride were 
not satisfied with this lack of recognition of his distinguished 
services and position. The state legislature took the matter in 
hand a few years ago, appropriated five thousand dollars to have 
his body removed to Frankfort, the capital of the state, and 
have erected over it a suitable monument. Senator Beck pre- 
sented a bill in Congress for the national co-operation and 
appropriation, so as to make the slow but honorable monu- 
mental record of this president. So, at last, the body of this 
servant of the republic rests in the cemetery of this central city 
of Kentucky, in one of the most j)ictnresque localities of the 
state. Eichard Mentor Johnson, a vice-president of the United 
States, and a widely-known and distinguished citizen, rests here. 
And here also are buried the remains of Daniel Boone, the first 
settler of the state whose history has a romantic interest. 

Many stories have been written of the various burials of the 
body of President Taylor, to the effect that it was first buried 
at Washington; then removed to the old Taylor homestead in 
Kentucky, five miles from Louisville; then removed to Louis- 
ville, and finally to Frankfort. These stories are mistakes, 
according to a statement this day received (December 31, 1883) 



344 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

from General Kicliard Taylor^ nephew of President Taylor, and 
written at Frankfort, Kentucky. He says: 

*' General Zacliary Taylor has never been buried, notwith- 
standing the many stories to the contrary. He died in 1850, 
and his remains were immediately brought to Kentucky by his 
brother. Commissary General Joseph P. Taylor, and placed in a 
vault in the Taylor cemetery, on his father's old farm, five 
miles from Louisville, on the Jefferson and Brownsboro turn- 
pike road. A few months later, his wife died at Washington 
city, and was brought and placed in the vault, and I have had 
the key of the vault and cemetery ever since. It is a very pretty 
place ; an acre in size, and enclosed by a nice substantial stone 
wall. It belongs exclusively to our family. General Taylor's 
father and mother, brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, 
and grand nieces and nephews are there. The monument is of 
gray granite, surmounted by a marble statue from Italy, life 
size, and a fine likeness, the whole being about forty feet from 
the base. The inscriptions were all suggested by me, and are 
very appropriate. The monument was virtually completed July 
4, 1883, but was not unveiled until September. I regret that I 
am not at Louisville, my home, so I could furnish an exact 
description." 






-M.</j 



^^^?>^!W-f^.i^-?^ 



ENGRAVED EXPREESSLV FOR WEAVERS " 1.1 V ES AND SHAVES OF OUR Presidents!' 




CHAPTER XIV. 



MILLAED FILLMORE. 

Thikteenth Presidekt of the United States. 

lOTHING in American biography, is more thoroughly 
11 American than the story of Millard Fillmore's life. 
"^ It compasses the distance from the least to the greatest 
in human condition — from the farm to the presidency. 
And it ia eo full of what is genuine and common in the life 
of the American people, that it illustrates the meaning of 
this government and the providential power of this American 
development of humanity. Here is a great life which shoots 
up from a humble home in the forest, because it grows from a 
strong root of human Avorth and is nourished by freedom and 
the fostering aids of wholesome christian society. 




BIRTH AND EARLY LIFE. 

Milliard's father was Nathaniel Fillmore, of Bennington, 
Vermont, who fought as a lieutenant in the battle of Benning- 
ton, under General Stark. His grandfather had the same name 
and was a soldier in the French war. Millard's mother was the 
daughter of Doctor Abiathar Millard, of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. 
She is said to have been a Avoman of great ability, personal worth 
and accomplishments. Mr. Fillmore, early in life, went into 
the wilderness of Cayuga county. New York, where Millard was 
born January 7, 1800. The place he purchased in the wilderness 
was four miles from any neighbor. He soon found that the title 

345 



346 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

to his land Avas defective, and in 1802 he left it and went to 
Sempronius, now Niles, where he lived till 1819, when he moved 
to Erie county. 

Millard was trained to the work of the farm, having only the 
simj)lest advantages for the rudiments of an education. At 
fifteen he had read almost nothing but his primary school books 
and the bible. At this time he was sent into Livingston county 
to learn the clothier's trade. After a few months an arrange- 
ment was made for him to pursue the same business, near his 
father's. Here he found a small village library, from which he 
read all his odd time for four years. He was now nineteen, well 
grown, manly, intelligent. The village library had quite 
transformed him. Judge Walter Wood had watched him with 
interest, and suggested to him that he ought to study law. 
Millard indicated his lack of education and money. The judge 
told him that hard study would supply the want of education, 
and he would himself furnish the needed money. So he left his 
trade for the law office of Judge Wood, where in study and 
business and winter school teaching, he spent two profitable 
years. Such a friend as Judge Wood had changed the course of 
his life, and put him into that ascending way which was so 
important to him, and for which his benefactor was amply 
repaid in due time. 

In the fall of 1821 he went to his father's new home in Erie 
county; and the next spring into a law office in Buffalo. While 
studying here he supported himself by teaching school, assisting 
the post master and doing such little tasks as he could get. 

MR. FILLMORE THE LAWYER AND PUBLIC MAN. 

In the spring of 1823, Mr. Fillmore was admitted to the bar 
and began practice in the village of Aurora. He remained here 
seven years, and while here, married Miss Abigail Powers, 
daughter of Reverend Lemuel Powers. 

His success as a lawyer gained him an invitation to a partner- 
ship with an experienced lawyer in Buffalo. But before going, 
he took his seat in the lower house in the legislature to which he 



MILLARD FILLMORE. 347 

had been elected. In 1830, he went to Buffalo; was re-elected 
the two succeeding years to the legislature; made such a record 
and reputation that he was elected to Congress in 1832; and 
served so satisfactorily that he was re-elected in 1836. On his 
second term in Congress Mr. Fillmore was made chairman 
of the committee of ways and means, which made him the 
leader in the House. The country was in need ol wise legisla- 
tion, to restore the finances, quicken business, pay off the public 
debt and regain confidence. The committee of ways and means 
were to lead in all this. One of the most difficult works this 
committee had to do was to revise the tariff. Mr. Fillmore was 
an ardent friend of a protective tariff; but he must so arrange 
the tariff that all parts of the country would accept it. He 
gave a long and arduous labor to this subject and with eminent 
success. 

In 1844, Mr. Fillmore was nominated by the whig party of 
New York as its candidate for governor; but he was beaten by 
Silas Wright, the popular candidate of the other party. 

In 1847, the whigs, still confident of his popularity, nominated 
him for comptroller, and elected him by a heavy majority. 

In June, 1848, the national whig convention nominated Mr. 
Fillmore for vice-president on the ticket with Zachary Taylor 
for president. The popularity of the old soldier who had fought 
the Indians through half his life on the frontier, and who had 
Just gained new laurels in four battles in Mexico, was measurably 
enhanced by the dignit}^, solidity and statesmanship of Millard 
Fillmore. The campaign was one of great enthusiasm, and the 
whig nominees elected with a strong majority. 

VICE-PRESIDENT FILLMORE. 

On the fourth of March, 1849, Mr. Fillmore was inaugurated 
vice-president of the United States. His chief duty was to pre- 
side over the Senate. Mr. Calhoun, his predecessor, had made 
it a rule not to call a senator to order, but to give full liberty of 
debate, as each one chose to conduct it. On taking his official 
place, Mr. Fillmore addressed the Senate on the importance of 



348 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

dignity, decorum and directness in the debates of the Senate, 
and declared it his sense of duty to hold each member to the 
order of debate and to be himself the judge of that order, sub- 
ject always to an appeal. His statement of his idea of his duty 
gave great satisfaction ; and although he presided through 
stormy debates, no one ever questioned his impartiality, fair- 
ness, or correctness. 

MR. FILLMORE THE PRESIDENT. 

On the ninth of July, 1850, President Taylor died, and it 
devolved upon vice-president Fillmore now to become president 
in his stead. He appointed an able cabinet, with Daniel 
Webster as his secretary of state. Mr. Fillmore came into the 
presidency at a time when the whole country was in one of its 
sharpest debates on the question of slavery. The war with 
Mexico, preceded by the annexation of Texas, had opened 
immense territories for the extension of southern institutions, 
and this had awakened the north to a new zeal against the 
extension of slavery and the abolitionists to new fervors in their 
opposition to slavery itself. Mr. Clay's compromise measures 
had failed in Congress. So Congress was open to do what it 
could. Both north and south were intent on doing something. 
Texas, the "lone star," warlike, pro-slavery, newly-made sister 
state, was threatening to invade New Mexico, and the president 
sent troops there at once to keep the peace, and laid the matter 
before Congress. 

Various acts were soon passed by Congress instead of Mr. 
Clay's compromise bill, all carrying out the compromise features 
of that bill, among them, one for the return of fugitive slaves. 
Mr. Fillmore asked the attorney general's opinion as to its con- 
stitutionality. That officer gave a written opinion in favor of 
the bill's constitutionality. Mr. Fillmore was opposed to slavery 
in policy and principle. Yet he was a whig with Henry Clay. 
Mr. Clay was the great compromiser. Whenever slavery, or 
north and south difficulties, came up, Mr. Clay was ready with 
a compromise bill as a remedy. He was a great leader in the 
whig party, and led it into the compromise theory of legislation 



MiLLARD FILLMORE. 349 

and morality. The great majority of tlie whig party of the 
north was anti-slavery, as was Mr. Fillmore himself. Yet the 
compromise spirit that possessed it did not give it difference 
enough from the democratic party to maintain its life. Mr. 
Fillmore signed the fugitive slave bill, and thus destroyed the 
possibility of his re-election and closed up the life of the party. 
The north demanded a more pronounced opposition to the 
extension of slavery. 

The fugitive slave law created intense excitement in the 
north. Slaves could scarcely be captured anywhere without a 
mob. It was a law which many people felt themselves under 
no moral obligation to obey. The law was resisted in Boston, 
Syracuse, and Christiana, Pennsylvania, and would have been 
almost anywhere had the occasion occurred. The president 
announced his purpose to enforce the law, and issued a procla- 
mation calling all officers to faithfulness of duty in executing it. 
All measures were taken that well could be to carry the law into 
practical eifect, yet it was so unpopular, and made the president 
so unpopular, that all his merits as an executive officer were for- 
gotten, and the many popular things of his administration were 
lost sight of. The truth was, that all other questions were 
eclipsed by the great one of slavery. It was felt that humanity, 
justice and honor were outraged by the law that made every 
man an abettor of slavery in compelling him to catch the run- 
away. The people of the south felt that all this was demanded 
by their constitutional right to property in slaves. But it was 
simply morally impossible for the people of the north to see 
that they were under any constitutional obligation to catch such 
departing property. No matter how many popular measures a 
president had approved, to attempt to force such a measure 
upon them was to make himself unpopular. 

President Fillmore, in his messages, proposed many impor- 
tant matters to Congress which were not acted upon, because 
the majority of Congress were democratic. 

On the fourth of July, 1851, the president laid the corner- 
stone of the extension of the capitol. An immense concourse 
of people were present, who were addressed by Daniel Webster. 



350 Our presidents. 

The slavery excitement quickened in the minds of some 
southern fanatics a desire to possess Cuba as a slave island, and 
they started an expedition under a man by the name of Loper, 
in the steamer Pampero. It left the port of New Orleans on 
the fourth of August, by the connivance of the collector of the 
port, and landed in Cuba. The president had issued a procla- 
mation of warning against the expedition before it left, putting 
the Cubans on the lookout for it. It came to grief. 

In the autumn of 1853 an expedition under the command of 
Commodore Perry was sent to Japan, which resulted in forming 
a treaty with that island country, which has been of mutual 
benefit to both countries. The changes and improvements 
which have been made in that country, resulting from that 
treaty, are among the wonderful and beneficent works of the 
century. Nothing more signalized Mr. Fillmore's administra- 
tion than this. It is one of the most marked cases of the good 
which our republic is doing abroad. Our system of education, 
laws, and to a large degree our civilization, are being adopted 
by the Japanese. 

During Mr. Fillmore's administration treaties were formed 
also with the South American States, Peru, Costa Pica, and 
Brazil. A steamer was sent by the government to explore the 
Plata and its tributaries. An expedition was sent by the presi- 
dent to explore the Amazon and its tributaries, to get instructive 
reports in the interests of science and general knowledge. 

Mr. Fillmore conducted the intercourse of our government 
with foreign nations with ability and success. His messages 
were wise, strong and replete with the practical counsels of a 
statesman. His cabinet Avere in perfect harmony with himself 
and each other, and, upon his retiring from office, they did the 
unusual thing of addressing to him a congratulatory letter, 
expressing their ''united appreciation of his abilities, his integ- 
rity, and his devotion to the public service." 

Mr. Fillmore retired from office March 4, 1853, with the 
country at peace and in a state of great prosperity. 

His first secretary of state, Daniel Webster, died October 24, 
1852, and Edward Everett was appointed in his place ; both 



MILLARD FILLMORE. 351 

men renowned for their great ability and learning. Daniel 
Webster will ever be held as one of the intellectual giants of 
the republic. But, like Mr. Fillmore, he was drawn into sym- 
pathy with the compromise measures on the subject of slavery, 
and lost favor with the northern public. This was a whirlpool 
that took in many great and ambitious men in those days. It 
was a time that tried the metal of the moral character of our 
statesmen. 

THE EVENING REPOSE. 

Mr. Fillmore was a candidate for nomination to the next 
presidency in the whig convention of 1852 ; but though as 
president he had given great satisfaction to the party and 
country, his signing the fugitive slave bill had put him in such 
ill odor in the north that he could command but twenty votes 
in the free states. 

In the spring of 1855 Mr. Fillmore traveled through New 
England, then went to Europe, and while in Rome, 1856, he 
received intelligence of his nomination as a candidate for the 
presidency by the American party. He accepted the nomination, 
but before the election it became evident that the real struggle 
was between the democratic and the new republican party. 
The intense ambition in the south to extend slavery had pro- 
duced a strong party in the north against its further extension; 
and the struggle was now between extension and non-extension* 
of slavery. 

Mr. Fillmore lived in peace in the evening of his days at his 
palatial home in Buffalo, New York, enjoying the honors and 
rewards of a nobly spent and successful life. He died March 8, 
1874, aged seventy-four years and two months. 

During the war of the rebellion he remained so quiet as to 
throw suspicion upon his loyalty in some minds; but his life of 
faithful public service; his long-avowed espousal of high prin- 
ciples of national rectitude and honor; his personal character, 
so above all suspicion, stand as the perpetual testimonials of his 
patriotism. He was a true representative of American char- 
acter, and honored his country in both his private and public life. 



352 OUR PREStDENTS. 

?HE i[RAVE OF JllLLARD IlLLMORE. 

Some three miles north of the city of Buffalo, and a little 
east of the Niagara river, is Forest Lawn cemetery, one of those 
beautiful cities of the dead which the affection and taste of the 
people of our time make in memory of the departed. The 
living city is already coming near to it, and the sounds and 
sights of the generation of to-day already mingle with the 
silence and sacredness of this home of mortal dust. 

The Fillmore lot is thirty by forty feet, enclosed with an 
iron railing set in a stone curb. It contains five graves. The 
monument is of highly-polished Scotch granite, twenty-two feet 
high. The word "Fillmore " is on the northern side of the base, 
in raised letters. 

At the eastern side of the lot is Mr. Fillmore's grave. Near 
its head is the monument, on the northern side of which is 
this inscription : 



P BORN J 

{ ■ January 7, 1800. J 

t DIED 4 

L March 8, 1874. J 

In the lower and western side of the lot are four graves, that 
of his first wife, Mary Abigail Fillmore ; that of her mother, 
Mrs. Abigail Powers Strong ; that of their daughter, Mary 
Abigail Fillmore; and that of his last wife. 

Near by are the graves of Mr. Fillmore's law partners. Hall 
and Havens, and a splendid centennial monument, erected by 
Mr. E. G. Spaulding to the memory of his ancestors who fought 
at Bunker Hill, making it possible for us to have a country, and 
presidents to rule over it. 



CHAPTER XV. 




;i 



FEA^KLII^ PIERCE. 

Fourteenth President of the United States. 

ENEEAL BENJAMIN PIERCE was a soldier in the 
^'H revolutionary war, was afterward a radical Jeffersonian 
^ democrat, who hated England and loved France ; was 
*y ^ * an independent, large-hearted farmer ; was for many years 
a representative of his town in the New Hampshire legis- 
lature ; was a general in the state militia ; was for a time 
a member of the governor's council, and two years governor of 
the state. He was an ardent politician, and with political 
weapons fiercely fought the federalists. 

BIRTH AND EARLY LIFE. 

Franklin Pierce was the son of Governor Benjamin Pierce — 
the sixth of eight children, 

Franklin was a bright, handsome, active boy, who took his 
father's politics by inheritance and repeated the ancestral argu- 
ments till they became his own. He was a generous boy, who 
won favor at home, at school, and wherever he was known. His 
father had suffered much for want of an education, and as 
Franklin inclined to it, he resolved that he should be educated. 
The district school gave him a good start ; the farm gave him 
practical industry ; the academies at Hancock and Francestown 
fitted him for college ; Bowdoin college gave him a classical 
course of study ; Judge Levi Woodbury and the law school at 
23 353 



354 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

Northampton, Massachusetts, trained him in law ; so that at a 
little past twenty-three, Franklin Pierce the boy, had become 
Mr. Franklin Pierce, the man and the lawyer. 

Among his classmates in college, were Professor Calvin E. 
Stowe, a theological teacher and writer of note, and the husljand 
of Harriet Beecher Stowe ; Nathaniel Hawthorne, a very dis- 
tinguished writer of romance, and who has written a biography 
of Mr. Pierce up to his nomination for the presidency; and 
John P. Hale, a statesman, orator and foreign minister, much 
distinguished in his day. Other noted men were in college with 
him, among whom was John S. C. Abbott, much known as an 
author, who wrote a sketch of Mr. Pierce's life in ''The Lives 
of the Presidents." 

MR. PIERCE THE LAWYER AND THE POLITICIAN. 

Mr. Pierce entered upon the practice of law in Hillsboro, his 
native town ; succeeded poorly in the beginning, but persevered 
and attained reasonable success. His bent of mind was to pol- 
itics. His father was a radical partisan politician. The son 
was a chip of the old block. His politics was partisanship. 
Judge Woodbury, his law preceptor, was a strong politician of 
the same school. New Hampshire politics was the kind he was 
trained in. He was cradled, bred, educated in radical, partisan 
democracy. The air was too full of it, it was too one-sided, it 
had too little opposition, to rise to philosophical, or statesman- 
like democracy. He was honest and hearty in it. His cast of 
mind, under his training, made that kind of politics his meat 
and drink. His cheerful, confident, frank and winning man- 
ners, made him a favorite with intensely clanish politicians of 
his school. Between thoughtful, broad, humane democracy, 
which is founded in the rights of human nature, expressed in 
the Declaration of Independence, and which was meant by the 
originators of the party that bears that name, and that to which 
Mr. Pierce lent his life service, there is but little affiliation. 

The town of Hillsboro elected Mr, Pierce, when twenty-five, 
its representative in the legislature, and re-elected him for four 
successive years ; the legislature made him its speaker the last two 



FRANKLIN PIERCE. 355 

years ; his congressional district elected him to Congress when 
twenty-nine, the yonngest member in the House, and re-elected 
him in two years ; his legislature elected him to the Senate of 
the United States in 1837, when he was thirty-three years old — 
the youngest member of that body. He thus went rapidly up 
the stairway of political promotion, till, while yet a youth, he sat 
in the most dignified and honorable body of men in the nation, 
with such men as John C. Calhoun, Thomas H. Benton and 
James Buchanan around him. 

While a member of the House, Mr. Pierce opposed all forms 
of internal improvement by the general government, the bill 
authorizing a military academy at West Point, and all anti- 
slavery measures. Young as he was, he was fast in the partisan 
ruts. His political career had thus far been in President Jack- 
son's time, to whose policy and fortunes he adhered with filial 
devotion. 

As a senator, he was in Mr. Van Buren's administration, 
Avhich was but a prolongation of Jackson's, with the bitter 
results keenly felt in the prostration of all business and fearful 
hopelessness and want of courage among the people. Under Mr. 
Van Buren, his old law precej^tor. Judge Levi Woodbury, was 
secretary of the treasury. 

In 1842, the year after General Harrison's election, Mr. Pierce 
resigned and returned to the j)ractice of law in Concord, New 
Hampshire, whither he had moved in 1838. 

In 1846, President Polk offered him the attorney-generalship 
of the United States, but he declined it, though in full sympa- 
thy with him, his administration, and the measures he was 
expected to carry out. About the same time the democratic 
party of New Hampshire proposed to put him in nomination for 
governor, which was equivalent to an election; but he declined 
this also. 

Mr. Pierce was in hearty sympathy with the annexation of 
Texas and the course pursued to bring it about, and when the war 
opened with Mexico, which it caused, volunteered to fight for the 
state we had severed from our neighbor to become slave terri- 
tory, with as much zeal as though a great benefit was to be 



356 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

bestowed upon an oppressed, mce. He enlisted in tlie ninth 
regiment and was made its colonel. Soon after he was promoted 
to the rank of brigadier-general. He embarked with a portion 
of his troops at Newport, Rhode Island, May 27, 1847. 

In a month he landed on a sand-beach at Virgara, Mexico; 
collected, by great efforts, wild mules and mustangs enough 
to transport his luggage; broke his prairie animals to the har- 
ness; in the trojjical heat of the middle of July started on the 
Jalappa road over sand-hills, and stream-beds and prairie 
stretches for Puebla, to reinforce General Scott. By labor, 
fatigue, skill and devotion worthy of the best of causes, he 
made bridges, fought off guerillas, captured villages, took pos- 
session of haciendas or Mexican estates; cared well for his four 
hundred sick men, and transported his twenty-four hundred 
men to a union with the main army at Puebla, without the loss 
of a wagon. 

At Contreras, by order of General Scott, General Pierce, 
with four thousand men, fought twice that number and gained 
a comiDlete victory. Though he was severely hurt by a fall of 
his horse, he kept his post of duty against the advice of officers 
and surgeons. He followed the enemy and fought him again 
desperately at Cherubusco, though faint and haggard with pain 
and loss of sleep; and still again at Molino del Rey. But so badly 
injured was the intrepid and ardent young soldier, that he had 
to be carried to the hospital, and the city of Mexico was taken 
without his further help. He remained in the caj^tured city till 
December, and then returned to his home in New Hampshire. 

At Concord General Pierce took up again the practice of his 
profession, and also the advocacy of his party politics, defend- 
ing stoutly the pro-slavery wing of his party, the compromise 
measures of Congress, the fugitive slave law and its enforce- 
ment, as though there were no defiance of democratic principles 
in all this, and no violation of enlightened conscience. 

In 1850 General Pierce presided over the constitutional con- 
vention in his state. 

In 1852 the democratic national convention, at Baltimore, 
after thirty-five ballotings for a candidate for the presidency. 



FRANKLIN PIERCE. 357 

brought ill the name of Franklin Pierce, and on the forty-ninth 
ballot he was nominated, receiving two hundred and eiglity-two 
votes to eleven for all others. His name was proposed by the 
Virginia delegation. The election was an active one. The 
compromise measures and the fugitive slave law had secured 
possession of the country. Quiet had settled down upon the 
opposition, and with it had come apathy to many. General 
Scott was the whig candidate. He received the votes of Ver- 
mont, Massachusetts, Tennessee and Kentucky; all the rest went 
for General Pierce. 

PRESIDENT PIERCE. 

March 4, 1853, Mr. Pierce was inaugurated fourteenth pres- 
ident of the United States. In his inaugural address he main- 
tained the then dominant doctrines of his party on the subject 
of slavery, and rejjrobated the discussion of that subject. 

Very soon came a further dispute with Mexico about the 
boundary, which v/as settled by the acquisition of Arizona. It 
was Mexico's misfortune to lose by all her dis]3utes. Under this 
administration routes to the Pacific were explored; a settlement 
with Great Britain of the fishery question was made; the Mis- 
souri compromise was repealed ; the territories of Kansas and 
Nebraska were organized, by a special act, under Avhich came 
the desperate efforts of the south to organize a pro-slavery gov- 
ernment in Kansas. The recital of the events of what was 
called the "Kansas War" would be too long for this place. It 
intensified the differences of the time between north and south, 
and was participated in chiefly by those of extreme views and 
excitable dispositions. Few cool heads went to Kansas at that 
time from either section of the Union. If any went there cool 
they soon became heated. Missouri desperadoes jilayed a strong 
part in that Kansas trouble that so shook the country in the 
administration of President Pierce, who was so warm in his 
espousal of extreme southern views that he got the name of 
"the northern man with southern principles." 

Mr. Pierce vetoed bills for the completion and imjjrovement 
of certain public works; for appropriating public lands for the 



358 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

indigent insane; for the payment of the French spoliation 
claims, and for increasing the subsidy of the Collins line of 
steamships. On the twenty-fourth of January, 1856, he sent a 
message to Congress, in which he regarded the formation of a 
free-state government in Kansas as an act of rebellion, and 
justified the principles of the Kansas-Nebraska act. 

Many southern men took a more just view of the subject 
than he did. In his over-zeal for the extreme southern prin- 
ciples and measures he did much to hasten the formation of the 
republican party, the leading doctrine of which was the non- 
extension of slavery. 

The Congressional complications were such over the Kansas 
embroilment that the Congress of 1856 adjourned without pro- 
viding for the payment of the army. President Pierce immedi- 
ately called an extra session, to meet on the twenty-first of 
August. His message to that body was chiefiy devoted to the 
Kansas trouble, concerning which he took strong ground against 
the free-state party. He closed his administration as he began, 
a radical northern man with southern principles. 

Mr. Pierce was a candidate for re-election, but his extreme 
officiousness in behalf of slavery had disgusted many of his 
northern friends, and led his southern friends to see that he 
could not longer serve them with success. So James Buchanan 
was put in nomination as his successor. 

After President Pierce left Washington, he took an extended 
tour through Europe, from which he returned in 1860. He- 
continued to reside at Concord, where, during the Rebellion, he 
made a speech, which was called the " Mausoleum-of -heart's 
Speech" on account of its sympathy with the confederates. 

In 1834, Mr. Pierce was married to Miss Jane Means Apple- 
ton, daughter of Eeverend Doctor Appleton, president of Bow- 
doin college. Three sons were born to them, but all died before 
their mother. She died in 1863, and Mr. Pierce in 1869. He 
was for many years a communicant of the Episcopal church. 



FRAXKLIN PIEKCE. 359 



*f HE i.RAVE OF TOANKLIN f lERCE. 

After three months sickness Franklia Pierce closed his eyes 
on terrestrial scenes and passed within the vail to the realm hid 
from mortal sight. His body was laid in state for two days, in 
Doric hall, in the capitol. It was borne in funereal procession 
to Minot cemetery, where was sung over it his favorite hymn: 

"While thee, I seek, protecting Power, 

Be my vain wishes stilled. 

And may this consecrated hour 

With better hopes be filled, 
t 

The Minot enclosure adjoins the old town cemetery and is 
fenced with a neat iron paling six feet high; is traversed with 
concrete paths and smoothly sodded. The Pierce lot is in the 
northwestern corner. The monument over the grave of the 
president is of Italian marble, elaborately wrought. The base is 
of granite, three feet and three inches square. The plinth, die 
and cap are in artistic proportions. The word Pierce, is on the 
plinth in large raised letters; and on the panel of the die is the 
inscription: 

illlllll!lllllllll!llllllllllllllllllllllilllllll|l|lllllllllllllllllllllll|l|IIIIIIIMIB 

I Born November 33, 1804. | 
j Died October 8, 1869. | 

BIIIIIIJIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllB 

Why Francis, instead of Franklin, does not appear in any 
public record, but it is presumed that Francis was the name 
originally given him. Everything is neat and in order about 
the grave and lot. 

On the south side of the president's grave is that of Mrs. 
Pierce. It is marked with a neat marble spire, with a heaven- 
pointing hand, indicating the faith in the home above, in which 



360 



OUll 1> RESIDENTS. 



she lived and died, 
inscribed the words: 



Over the hand, in an arc of a circle, are 



"Other RefugtE 1 Have None." 

On the nortli side of the presidency's grave are the graves of 
their two sons, Eobert and Franklin. The whole family are 
gone together; only their history left. So pass away the families 
of earth. And so are being monumented the graves of onr 
republican presidents in the cemeteries of the people all over the 
land. State after state holds the grave of a president. Some of 
the states already have several. The people, in this people's 
country, make the rulers from among themselves, and then 
reverently and tenderly lay their bodies away among the bodies 
of those over whom they ruled; ruler and ruled, alike in the 
feebleness of their beginning, and in the impotency of death. 
There is a dignity and consistency in this form of government 
which reflects honor upon our nature and our kind. When the 
people honor the rulers of their choice, chosen from among 
themselves, on account of their ability and worth, and then 
bury them in their own family burying grounds, monument 
their graves, and keep them green with hallowed memories, it 
indicates the true meaning and use of government. This is as 
it should be. ''Honor to whom honor is due." In honoring 
their noble dead, the people honor themselves. 

By the side of President Pierce sleep many of the most 
honored of New Hampshire's citizens, those with whom he lived 
and labored, who bore with him the cares of government and the 
burdens of our popular institutions. Death is republican. 






d 



^^^^fe^^^<^ (2y^^U^C<^i^i^y7Z.^eO^^ 



EMOHAVED EIPBEESSLY TOR WEAVEHS " LIV ES AND GRAVES OF Oun I 




CHAPTER XVI. 



JAMES BTJOHANAlSr. 

Fifteenth Pkesident of the United States. 



HE value of a government or an order of society is 
tested by its results in human ability and character. 
^ The fact that American society has been very pro- 
/^qy^ ductive of great men, and that even from its primitive 
plantings its products have been large and generous, indi- 
cates that it is founded upon principles promotive of 
human well being. A tree is known by its fruits; men by their 
deeds, and society by the people it produces. 



ANCESTEY AND EDUCATION'. 

We have, in James Buchanan, another i^^ stance of a distin- 
guished man rising from the humblest origin. His father was 
a poor Irish immigrant, who came to the New World to better 
his fortune, in 1783, Just as the revolutionary war was closing. 
He settled in Pennsylvania, and five years after did the right 
thing to mend his fortune by marrying Elizabeth Spear, the 
daughter of a good farmer. 

The next good thing he did was to go a little way into the 
•'forest primeval," stake out a tract of land for a farm, build a 
cabin, and establish a home. Now he was an American citizen, 
a freeholder, a husband, a farmer. The independent, thinking, 
self -directing American man was enthroned in this new home in 
t,he woods. Sooij came the little boy, whom they named James, 

361 



362 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

to cheer the solitude and add for a time to the work and 
responsibility. In this sylvan retreat this child of the woods 
had the freedom of his obscure home in which to get a good 
start in muscle and mind. The place was called Stony Batter, 
Franklin county, Pennsylvania, where, April 22, 1791, James 
Buchanan was born. 

When he was eight years old the family moved to Mercers- 
burg, and the boy went into school to go rapidly through the 
rudiments of an education, and be fitted for college at fourteen.- 
He entered Dickinson college, and graduated at eighteen. This 
quick transit through a course of collegiate study told the char- 
acter and force of his mind. He was now tall, athletic, vigorous, 
graceful, and exuberant of spirit. 

BUCHANAN THE LAWYER. 

He began at once the study of law in the city of Lancaster. 
When twenty-one he was admitted to the bar. He entered 
immediately upon his profession, and soon attained a lucrative 
practice. 

BUCHANAN THE LEGISLATOR. 

In 1820 Mr. Buchanan was elected to the Lower House of 
Congress, where he continued ten years. 

He was a federalist in his early life — believed in the consti- 
tution, in a secure and strong government, capable of self- 
perjoetuation ; he believed in the nation having power over 
all its parts. 

But as the Jeffersonian party, in opposition to the federalists, 
went over more and more to the state-rights doctrines, and 
became more and more assured in its majorities and power in 
the country, Mr. Buchanan went with it, so that he said, a little 
after middle life: "The older I grow the more I am inclined to 
be what is called a state-rights man." 

When the second war with England, in 1811, broke out, Mr. 
Buchanan vigorously supported the government, and enlisted 
himself as a j^rivate soldier to repel the British, who had sacked 
Washington and were threatening Baltimore. 



JAMES BUCHANAN. 363 

In Congress, and as a jiolitician, Mr. Buchanan was opposed 
to internal improvements by the national government ; opposed 
to a protective tariff ; opposed to a national bank ; was afraid 
the national government had in it some root of tyrannical power 
which would grovi to be a dangerous oppression upon the states, 
if not held vigilantly in check. He became a zealous Jackson 
man in his time, and supported him in his erratic and dictatorial 
administration. In the succeeding administration he supported 
Van Buren with equal zeal ; so that when the slavery question 
came to the front he was so committed to all the doctrines and 
measures of the democratic party of that time, that the defense 
of slavery seemed to him to be the support of the country. 
Jackson sent him to Eussia to arrange a treaty of commerce 
with that country. Under Van Buren, he supported the pres- 
ident's independent treasury scheme. Under Polk, none was 
more active and pressing in support of the annexation of Texas, 
as he said, "to afford that security to the southern and south- 
western slave states which they have a right to demand." 

In 1833, he was elected to the Senate of the United States, 
and in his position as an influential and untiring advocate of the 
doctrines of his party and its presidents, he was able to wield a 
great influence in shaping its course in its sectional measures 
which were all the while tending to make slavery paramount to 
country or humanity, in the minds of its advocates. And yet 
all the time he seemed to himself to be a national politician, 
broad and fair-minded to all sections. He said: "If I know 
myself, I am a politician neither of the east nor of the west, of 
the north nor of the south. I therefore shall forever avoid any 
expressions, the direct tendency of which shall be to create sec- 
tional jealousies, and at length disunion — that worst and last of 
all political calamities." In his argument for the annexation of 
Texas, he seemed to make himself believe that the benefit would 
accrue more to the north than the south, for he said : "But to 
the middle and western, and more especially to the New Eng- 
land, states it would be a source of unmixed prosperity. It 
would extend their commerce, promote their manufactures, and 



304 OUll PllESIDENTS. 

increase tlieir wealth." So do great men, perhaps meaning 
well, misunderstand themselves. 

He stoutly approved of Jackson's doctrine, that ''to the vic- 
tors belong the spoils," and his practice of removing from office 
all not of his party. 

SECEETARY OF STATE. 

Upon Mr. Polk's ascendency to the presidential office, he 
appointed Mr. Buchanan to the cabinet office of secretary of 
state. 

He had the settlement of the northwestern boundary ques- 
tion, with England, which had remained open until now. 

In all the sectional questions of Mr. Polk's administration, 
Mr. Buchanan was loyal to the pro-slavery views which he had 
so strongly advocated. He sustained the Mexican war in its 
beginning, progress and close, and counted it a national glory. 

At the close of Mr. Polk's administration, Mr. Buchanan 
retired to private life, having served his ]vdvtj to its great satis- 
faction, and especially the southern portion of it. Yet he was 
too deeply interested in the great questions of the time to keep 
quiet concerning them, and in letters and public addresses 
sought to allay the northern agitation of slavery by advocating 
the southern view of it, in all the differing phases in which from 
time to time it came up. 

MINISTER TO ENGLAND. 

Soon after Mr. Pierce became president he appointed Mr. 
Buchanan minister to England. The j)rincipal object of his 
mission related to the settlement of questions left oi^en in rela- 
tion to the Central American States and Spain. Cuba was 
Spanish territory and near the southern states. Spain miglit 
resolve to free the slaves, or the slaves might do as they did in 
St. Domingo, free themselves. In either case it would be dan- 
gerous to slavery in our country, aiul must be looked after. Mr. 
Buchanan was a self-constituted servant of the institution, and 
willingly took up this mission. After awhile Mr. Mason and 



JAMKS BUCHANAN. 865 

Mr. Soule were appointed to meet hiin at Ostend, Avliere the 
celebrated ''Ostend Manifesto" was agreed upon. It was writ- 
ten bj Mr. Buchanan, and set forth the importance of Cuba to 
the United States, by purchase, if it could be so secured, or by 
conquest, if slavery in it should be interfered with. In his own 
country or abroad, north or south, in Congress or out, Mr. 
Buchanan found slavery demanding his service, and he always 
responded with alacrity. 

PRESIDENT BUCHANAN. 

In June, 1857, Mr. Buchanan was nominated for tne presi- 
dency by the democratic convention, and the next autumn 
elected, receiving one hundred and seventj^-four electoral votes 
from nineteen states, while his opposing republican candidate, 
John C. Fremont, received one hundred and fourteen, and 
Millard Fillmore eight. The anti-slavery agitation had increased 
more and more for many years. All that had been said and 
done to make slavery secure and to extend it, had only served 
to endanger it. The federal party had gone down in its care 
not to opi^ose it ; the whig party had died in its efforts to 
treat it resijectfully ; the democratic party had grown mighty 
and arrogant in defending it. Now there had come into the 
field a new party which did not believe in slavery, many of the 
members of which were in judgment and conscience ojDposed to 
it ; and yet as a party its one doctrine was non-extension of 
slavery. It had grown steadily for a number of years and had 
now cast one hundred and fourteen electoral votes, and had 
gained a clear majority of about one hundred and ten thousand 
in the popular vote of the whole country. This looked ominous 
for the extension of slavery, to prepare for which the whole 
machinery of the government had been used through several 
administrations, and to acccomplish which Mr. Buchanan had 
been elected. It put Mr. Buchanan in a difficult place. He 
had taken and continued to take the southern side of the Kan- 
sas embroglio. In every case he did what he could for slavery, 
not seeming to see any questions of morality or humanity con- 
nected with it, or feeling any pang of pity for the suffering 



S66 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

slaves or the unfortunate whites who held them in bondage to 
their own harm. 

A rebellion in Utah broke out, which Mr. Buchanan quelled 
by sending a wise commissioner to the disaffected, A homestead 
bill for settlers on the public lands was passed, which he vetoed. 
It was something for the extension of freedom and the help of 
freemen. 

As Mr. Buchanan's troubled administration drew near its 
close, the great discussion of slavery and the national situation 
called out the mighty men of the whole country, and the intel- 
lectual battle of the giants was brought on. The rostrum, the 
lyceum, the press, the pulpit, were all at their best. Over the 
whole country there was profound study and deep and tliorough 
dicussion. The best was said for both sides. The most notable 
discussion was that between Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham 
Lincoln — perhaps the greatest political oral discussion ever held 
in the world. The country read it with breathless interest. 
This, together with Mr. Lincoln's great speech in the Cooper 
Institute, New York, resulted in his nomination for the presi- 
dency by the republican party, in 1860, and his election. 

The pro-slavery leaders of the south had threatened disunion 
if Mr. Lincoln was elected. The people of the north had but 
little confidence in or fear of this threat. They believed the 
people of the south were loyal, and prized the Union more than 
tlie extension of slavery. They understood the threat to be that 
of the political leaders, and not of the considerate people. Indeed, 
the north has always had far more confidence in the southern 
people than in their leaders, because political leadership has 
been almost the only way to notoriety in the south. 

The last Congress under Mr. Buchanan met early in Decem- 
ber. His message was full of weakness. He said the constitu- 
tion had given him no power to coerce a withdrawing or a 
withdrawn state; that he could not call out the army except 
upon the requisition of jiidicial authority, and that authority 
did not exist in a rebellious state. The way was full of lions to 
the president who was in friendly sympathy with the seceding 
leaders. South Carolina formally seceded on the twentieth of 



JAMES BUCHANAN. 367 

December, and set up as a separate commonwealth, and sent 
commissioners to treat with the president, lie met them, "but 
only as private gentlemen of the highest character." 

The simple fact was, as the French writer, De Tocqueville, had 
foretold some years before, the doctrine of 'SState Sovereignty" 
had sapped the life blood of the loyalty of those who had espoused 
it as a political truth, and he, like those who went out, had no 
patriotic soundness in him. Since the days of Calhoun the 
immoral and dangerous heresy had been growing, and now had 
brought forth its first bitter fruit. 

Not Mr Buchanan alone, but all who had joined with him 
in the great heresy, were in the fault and jointly responsible for 
the great disaster. His patriotism was dead, and the moral 
stamina and the manly courage of the man had died with it. 
He was a body of political rottenness in the chair of state — a 
pitiable shame to American manhood. 

As soon as Mr. Lincoln was inaugurated Mr. Buchanan 
retired to his home in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he lived 
in quiet obscurity till June 1, 18G8, when he passed away, aged 
seventy -seven years. 

This wreck of patriotism and loyal manhood seems all the 
worse as Mr. Buchanan was really a great man, and had risen 
rapidly from obscurity to the highest place in the gift of the 
nation. He had many virtues, and some marked excellencies; 
had a fine physique, a noble face and a manly bearing, and 
ought to have been among the grand American men. 



^HE %AVE OF IaMES luCHANAN. 

At Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Mr. Buchanan lived from the 
time he began to study law till the close of his life. His resi- 
dence was about a mile west of the town on the Marietta road. 
He called it Wheatland. It is an old-fashioned brick mansion in 
the midst of a pleasant lawn well supplied with shade and orna- 
mental trees. Not far from the entrance is a fine spring, over- 



308 OUR PREStDfiNfg. 

shadowed with willows, which was always an object of interest 
to its owner, and where he often sat on summer days and read, 
and greeted his neighbors as they passed. It is now owned by 
his niece, Mrs. Henry E. Johnston (Miss Harriet Lane), of Balti- 
more, who was reared from childhood by him, and who now 
makes this her summer residence. 

Mr. Buchanan's grave is in Woodward Hill cemetery, in the 
southeastern part of the city, on a somewhat bluffy and fine out- 
look over the valley of the Conestoga. The cemetery contains 
twenty-seven acres, tastefully arranged and ornamented for the 
resting-place of human mortality. A chapel crowns the highest 
point, not far from the center. Near the chapel and a little 
down toward the river is the grave of the fifteenth president. 
The plat of ground enclosed with an iron fence is thirty feet by 
twelve. The fence is interlaced with thrifty and well-cared-for 
rose bushes ; while the well-kept lawn is dotted over with 
clumps of rare roses. The one grave is in the center of the lot. 
The remains rest in a vault of strong masonry, covered with 
heavy slabs of rock. A base of New Hampshire granite, some 
seven feet by three and a half, rests on these slabs, and on the 
base a single block of Italian marble six feet four inches long, 
two feet ten inches wide, and three feet six inches high, wrought 
with a heavy moulded cap and base. A branch of oak with 
leaves and acorns is cut in the cap. On the end of the block 
next to the chapel is this inscription : 

w Here Rest the Remains of 3 

> Fifteenth President of the United States. J 

Born in Franklin County, Pa., April 23, 1791. ^ 

Died at Wheatland, June 1, 1868. t 






^^ 



Q^y/^QiL^--^->^<^cr-0^ 



EHGBAVED F.XFREe'sSLY FOR WEAVERS " LI VES AND GRAVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. 




CHAPTER XVn. 



ABEAHAM LINOOLF. 




Sixteenth President of the United States. 

ITH an inexpressible sense of tenderness and respect 
for the unique and providential character of Abraham 
Lincoln, we come to the task of setting in order a 
^^> sketch of his life. He stands in our history by the side 
'' - rs of Washington in excellence of character and the great- 
ness of his life work for human well-being. Yet he is so 
near us who now live, and had such a tenderness for 
humanity, such a sensibility to human suffering and sorrow, 
and such acommanding respect for personal rights, that he 
seems to us a great brother of mankind, for whom we have a 
personal affection. He is not to us like other great men, afar 
off and grand, but near and dear in his greatness. 

Washington wrought out his greatness by a long life of 
conspicuous toil and self-sacrifice in high places of trust and 
honor. Lincoln came suddenly before the world, a genius in 
philanthropic wisdom and power; and yet in sterling worth and 
commanding ability they were much alike. One was a child of 
fortune, the other of poverty; one the associate of the educated 
and the great, and the other of the illiterate and humble; and 
yet they were equals in all that most commands the affection and 
gratitude of humanity. They will always have the worshipful 
affection of the great and good of all the world. 
24 369 



370 OtJR PRESIDENTS. 

ANCESTRY AND EARLY LIFE. 

Abraham Lincoln was born February 12, 1809, in Larue 
county, Kentucky. It is a picturesque and attractive region of 
country, at that time two-thirds timbered and fertile and the 
other third in rounded knolls and hills — "barrens" — covered 
with scattered oaks and other trees. About a mile and a half 
from Hodgenville, the county seat, near Nolin creek, in a rude 
log cabin, our child of the woods came into the hands of his 
humble parents. After two years they moved to a cabin on 
Knob creek, six miles from Hodgenville. 

Abraham's father's name was Thomas. He had two brothers, 
Mordecai and Josiah, and two sisters, Mary and Nancy. Their 
father's name was Abraham, who was shot while at work in his 
field by an Indian who had crept stealthily upon him. This 
Abraham had come from Virginia. The Virginia Lincolns came 
from Berks county, Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Lincolns 
were Quakers, and may have come from England, or, more 
probably, from the Lincolns of Massachusetts, among whom the 
family names Abraham, Mordecai and Thomas abounded. 

Abraham Lincoln went from Eockingham county, in the 
Shenandoah valley, Virginia, to Kentucky about the year 1780. 
His children were all born in Virginia. Thomas Lincoln, by the 
early death of his father, was thrown out among the early 
settlers, to live as he could by wandering from cabin to cabin and 
working as he could get opportunity. Until he was twenty- 
eight years old he worked around for others, without money, 
without object, without education. At that age he married 
Nancy Hanks, who was also born in Virginia. He took her to 
the little cabin which he had built, where were born three chil- 
dren, Sarah, Abraham and Thomas. Thomas died in infancy; 
and Sarah after her marriage. She had no child. Abraham's 
mother was a slender, delicate woman, pale, sad, heroic and yet 
shrinking. He always held her memory in the profoundest 
respect, and said once to an intimate friend, with his eyes 
suffused with tears: "All that I am or hope to be I owe to my 
angel mother — blessings on her memory." 



ABRAHAM LIKCOLK. 371 

While at Knob Creek, Abraham went to school a few months, 
to two different teachers. His parents were both religious per- 
sons — Baptist communicants. Their pastor, Parson Elkins, 
came once in a few months and preached in the neighborhood. 
His coming was a great event in the Lincoln family, and deeply 
impressed the sensitive minds of Sarah and Abraham. From 
Parson Elkin's fervent and eloquent sermons came Abraham's 
first ideas of public speaking, as well as his first impressions of 
religion. 

In Abraham's eighth year, his father concluded to go Avest 
and north of the Ohio river. He sold his rude home for three 
hundred dollars and took his \)a.j in ten barrels of whisky and 
twenty dollars in money. He made a flat-boat and launched it 
upon Polling creek, loaded it with his whisky and heavy house- 
hold goods, and pushed off. Soon after he reached the Ohio he 
wrecked his boat and lost two thirds of his whisky and some of 
his goods and farming utensils. Getting help, he gathered up 
what he could, repaired his boat and floated on till he reached 
Thomson's ferry, Spencer county, Indiana, where he landed, 
and fixed on a place to live, eighteen miles from the ferry. Leav- 
ing his goods in the care of a settler, and crossing the river at 
the ferry, he took a bee line through the woods for his home. 
This was in the autumn of 1816. The family soon started with 
their bedding and light goods packed on three horses, for their 
new home. 

In their new place in the heavy forest of Indiana, they built 
a cabin; cleared up land as fast as they could, and tride to find 
rude comfort in close proximity to the wild beasts. They had 
been here but two years when Mrs. Lincoln died. This was an 
inconsolable sorrow to the sensitive, deep-thinking children. 
Her worn out body was buried under a tree near the cabin. 
But it was a great pain that they could have no religious burial 
service. Abraham had had some further attendance ujaon a 
school, and had learned to write a little, so, after consultation, 
it was agreed that Abraham should try his skill in writing a 
letter to Parson Elkins to ask him to come and preach a funeral 
sermon on his mother's death. This was no doubt the first 



372 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

letter he ever attempted to write. If Parson Elkins could have 
known that it was from a future president of the United States, 
it would doubtless have been preserved. Great was their com- 
fort in getting a letter, in a few weeks, from Parson Elkins, 
setting a Sunday some months ahead, when he would be there, 
and preach as desired. The mystery of writing now seemed to 
have a sacred meaning, and the marvels of an education to grow 
sublime in the thought of these afflicted children of the woods. 
They thought and longed, talked and waited the time out, send- 
ing word everywhere for twenty miles around to their forest 
neighbors, when lo, at the appointed time, the good man came, 
an angel of comfort and blessing indeed. It was the coming of 
the Lord to their poor hearts. The day was pleasant; the peo- 
ple came to the number of some two hundred; and sitting on 
the stumps, logs and ground around the grave of the mother of 
our great president, they listened to the gospel of immortality 
and divine love as preached by this Saint John of the wilderness, 
crying unto men, '' Prepare ye the way of the Lord." That day 
was one of the Lord's precious days in making the character of 
Abraham Lincoln. The tender reverence of that holy day 
never left his spirit. 

Abraham's mother had some education, and a few books 
which she read often to her two children. She read to them 
from the bible such parts as was best for them. The influence 
of these lessons was very great on the receptive heart of her son. 
The poor father sat by and listened, only to value an education 
all the more because he had it not. On this account he embraced 
every opportunity to give Abraham as much as he could. 

The mother died in 1818, so that Abraham could not have 
been quite ten years old. 

He had three different teachers while living in Indiana, but 
studied only a few weeks with each. All his school opportuni- 
ties, both in Kentucky and in Indiana, did not amount to more 
than one year. But he read much — not many books, but the few 
he had. He read the bible so much that he could repeat many 
parts of it. ^sop's Fables he read till he knew them by heart. 
Pilgrim's Progress, Weems' Life of Washington, and a Life of 



ABKAHAM LINCOLN. 373 

Henry Clay, he read over and over. These books were food for 
his hungry mind. 

The great life of Washington impressed him deeply, and in 
it he got the story of our national life, and the principles on 
which the republic started. Henry Clay, as a living man, won 
his interest. 

In a little more than a year after his mother's death his 
father married a Mrs. Sally Johnston, of Kentucky, who 
brought with her three children by a former marriage. She 
was a good step-mother, and the united families lived in peace. 

At this early age Abraham began to show the elements of 
character for which he was afterward noted — great good-nature, 
fondness for sport, and story-telling. This last quality was 
marked in his father. When about eighteen years of age he 
built a flat-boat and took the products of the farm to Louisiana. 
The next year he was applied to, by a trading neighbor, to take 
a boat-load to New Orleans for him, in company with his son. 
These voyages gave him a glimj)se of the world and some knowl- 
edge of business. At this time he had become a vigorous youth, 
six feet and four inches high, athletic, muscular and enduring. 
His reading, his two journeys to New Orleans, his quick wit, 
his story-telling and great sociability, his honesty and freedom 
from every vice, his powerful and athletic frame, and the odd 
and attractive peculiarities of his ways and conversation, 
already made him the center of attention among his neighbors. 
Everybody liked him, and confided in him. In his circle he 
already had the first place. 

EARLY MANHOOD. 

But the family got tired of heavy-timbered Indiana, and 
when Abraham was a month past twenty-one,, started for the 
prairie state of Illinois, and settled on the Sangamon river, 
about ten miles from Decatur. After Abraham had helped his 
father build a cabin, fence in, break up and plant to corn ten 
acres of prairie, he announced his intention of striking out for 
himself. He at once sought work among the neighboring farm- 
ers, breaking up prairie, splitting rails, putting up fences and 



374 OUR PKESIDENTS. 

chopping wood, or doing any work that offered. From this work 
he got the name of ''rail-splitter." There was no money then, 
and he split rails for the cloth to make his clothes, for his board 
and the things he needed. One who used to work with him at this 
time says that he was the roughest looking person he ever saw ; 
Avas tall, angular, ungainly, dressed in flax and tow garments, 
out at the knees ; was very poor, and often walked six or seven 
miles to his Avork, yet was welcome at every house and made 
friends as fast as he made acquaintances. 

About this time he Avas applied to to take a flat-boat to New 
Orleans, for one Denton Offutt, a trader. But as Offutt could 
not find a boat, he arranged with Lincoln to build one on the 
Sangamon river, seven miles from Springfield. Two other men 
were joined with him. They had twelve dollars a month each. 
They completed the boat, loaded it with hogs, and young Lin- 
coln and one of the men took it to Ncav Orleans and sold the 
load and boat, with such good results that Mr. Offutt put Abra- 
ham in charge of a mill and store at New Salem. Store-keeping 
was a new business to him, but he soon became such an object 
of interest that the people came from far and near to trade with 
him. Several incidents are related of him while here that gave 
him the name of "Honest Abe." By a mistake he had taken 
six and a quarter cents too much of a Avoman on a bill of goods. 
He did not sleep till he had carried it to her, on foot, some miles 
away. By another mistake, he put too small a weight on his 
scales for a pound of tea, and, after closing his store late in 
the evening, carried the rest of the tea to the Avoman^ Avho had 
got less than she paid for. 

There was a bullying set of young roughs about Ncav Salem 
who tried the mettle and strength of every young man who came 
into the neighborhood. One of them came into the store in a 
profane and abusive way when some ladies were in. Abraham 
begged him to desist from such language till the ladies had gone. 
He finally said: "If you are aching for a whipping, just go out- 
side till I am done Avith these ladies, and I will come out and 
attend to you." As good as his Avord, he Avent out and laid the 
felloAV on his back, and, in the utmost good nature, rubbed his 



ABllAllAM UNCOLN^. 375 

face with smartweed till he begged lustily for quarter. Then he 
let him up, got water and washed his face, and made the bully 
and his associates his friends by the operation. A few other 
such experiences with the rough elements of that community 
won them all to him. They could always get fun but never a 
fight out of him; and he soon became their ideal good fellow. 
His imperturbable good nature made him the master of every 
situation and won him" the victory in every coarse onslaught 
ujDon him. 

While engaged in OfEutt's store, Abraham began the study 
of English grammar, borrowing a copy of Kirkham's grammar of 
L. M. Green, a lawyer of Petersburg, and walking eight miles 
to get it. He used to talk with Mr, Green of his aspirations arid 
ambitions; said his family seemed to have good common sense, but 
none of them had become distinguished; that possibly he might. 
He had talked with some men who had the reputation of being 
great, and he could not see as they differed much from other 
men. It is evident, from all we get of him at this period, that 
he had begun to feel the ground-swell of the grand impulses 
that were in him and to think of the greatness possible to all 
true souls and the service they may render their country and 
kind. He read much while at New Salem. He devoured news- 
papers, particularly the Louisville '' Journal," so long edited by 
the witty and brilliant Prentice. 

LINCOLN A SOLDIER. 

"While Mr, Lincoln was at New Salem the Black Hawk war 
broke out. Mr. Lincoln enlisted himself, and enough in his 
vicinity to make a company. When the company was ready to 
organize, two men were named for the captaincy, Lincoln and a 
Mr. Kirkpatrick, who had been such an oppressive employer of 
young Lincoln, at one time, that he had left him. When the 
company was collected the two candidates stood at a little dis- 
tance, and each man in the company went to the man he wanted 
for ca])tain. When the word was given nearly all went to 
Lincoln, and those that did not immediately left the other man 
and went over to him. Lincoln said of it : " I felt badly to see 



376 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

him cut so." Here was an opportunity to be avenged for his 
old employer's abuse of him ; but he seemed to have no such 
feelings, but rather pitied him. 

In the army Captain Lincoln was a great favorite. His 
wonderful fund of good humor; his kindness to his men; his 
patient industry and tireless energy; his readiness to join in all 
their sports and outdo them all in their athletic feats, made 
him captain indeed. 

Mr. Lincoln often spoke of his early war-experience in a jocose 
spirit, but it had lessons and opportunities for him, as every- 
thing he touched seemed to have. Zachary Taylor was in the 
Black Hawk war also, so that two embryo presideuts had a part 
in conquering the fierce savage. 

When the soldiers from Sangamon county reached home, an 
election was just coming on. They at once proposed Captain 
Lincoln as a candidate for the legislature. He was now twenty- 
three years old, just emerging from obscurity. He was a whig, 
an admirer of Henry Clay, the story of whose life had captivated 
him when a boy. Andrew Jackson then led the democratic 
hosts. Sangamon was a democratic county, and Illinois was a 
democratic state. There was apparently no hope for the promo- 
tion of a whig. Yet Abraham Lincoln had adopted the politics 
of the minority, and accepted the nomination as a minority can- 
didate. In New Salem he got almost the entire vote, but in 
other parts of the county he lost the election. 

Mr. Offutt had failed in business. Mr. Lincoln was mustered 
out of the military service, was not elected to the civil service, 
and therefore was without employment. What should he do? 
He thought of learning the blacksmith trade. He was handy 
with tools; something of a general mechanic; he must do some- 
thing. W'hile meditating upon this matter, a friend bought 
the goods in the store in New Salem, at a venture, and asked 
Mr. Lincoln to take an account of his stock of goods. The 
result of it was that Mr. Lincoln and another man bought the 
goods. The other man proved a trifler and Mr. Lincoln's 
speculation brought him considerable in debt to his friend of 
whom he had bought. He afterward spoke jocosely of this 



ABllAHAAl LI^SCOLN. 377 

indebtedness as ''the national debt." While in this store he was 
appointed postmaster, by President Jackson. This he liked, for 
he could read all the newspapers; but when the store "winked 
out" as he said, he put the postoffice in his hat and carried it 
wherever he went. 

LINCOLN A SURVEYOR. 

But now again came the question, what should he do? Just 
as he was considering this, the county surveyor proposed to him 
to do the surveying about New Salem. He knew nothing of 
surveying, but arranged to do the job, went right at the study, 
and soon was running lines and staking out lots. It is said that 
his surveying has stood the test of time. This surveying led him 
to a wide acquaintance in the county. He was much among the 
farmers, in^ their homes, at their gatherings. He was in the 
villages professionally, and came close to all the people. And 
everywhere he was a marked man. Everybody liked him. His 
quaint ways, his fascinating stories, his knowledge and common 
sense, his freedom from selfishness, his warm friendship and 
readiness to lend everywhere a helping hand, and his trans- 
parent simplicity and good nature, with his long, gaunt, peculiar 
figure, made him the most pojDular man in the county. 

LINCOLN A LEGISLATOR. 

In 1834, two years after his first candidacy, he was again a 
candidate for the legislature. Now his friends persuaded him 
to make speeches, which he said he would do if they "wouldn't 
laugh at him." His quaint speeches told. They were like him- 
self, somehow, strangely influential. He was elected. In the 
same legislature was Major John T. Stuart, who had conceived 
a strong personal interest in him in the Black Hawk war. Mr. 
Lincoln said and did but little in this legislature, but observed 
and thought much. It was a school to him. 

Mr. Stuart suggested to him to study law, and offered to 
lend him books. He Avalked to Springfield for the books and 
studied and surveyed by turns. He was often buried in his 



378 OUR PllESlDENTS. 

studies, lost to everything else. Some said he was crazy. He 
was simply absorbed in his life's work, now open to him after a 
singular succession of experiences, that seemed to have no rela- 
tion to this study, yet led him in a roundabout way to it. 

In 1836 he was renominated to the legislature. The canvass 
was a very warm and able one. Many strong men were in the 
field. Mr. Lincoln had now had two years of thorough study. 
His mind had been stirred to action. The political field was 
alive with agitation. He had recast his thoughts in his late 
studies, and now with a man's grasp of mind he used them in 
his speeches. There was a meeting of candidates at Springfield 
for discussion, and a great gathering of the jieople. Ninian W. 
Edwards opened the discussion for the whigs. Doctor Early 
followed him for the democrats. He was then the great debater 
in Hlinois on that side. He had the faculty of merciless severity 
which he used against his antagonist, who desired an immediate 
reply; but Mr. Lincoln got the floor and proved himself master 
of the situation. He took up Early's speech and riddled its 
weak places, shook it to pieces and ridiculed it, all the time 
weaving in his own views with such masterly adroitness that he 
aroused a great enthusiasm in the audience. Cheer on cheer 
followed his strong points. He kindled into a flame of impas- 
sioned speech. His countenance was transformed. His eyes 
were fire; his stature majestic; his voice powerful and persua- 
sive. The effect of his speech was so electrical and triumphant, 
that from that hour he was held as one of the great orators of 
the state. And yet he was but twenty-seven years old. He 
went to the legislature that year with a strong body of men, 
himself recognized as their peer. Among them were several 
who afterward held high national positions; one of them was 
Stephen A. Douglas. 

The great work of that legislature was to institute a system 
of internal improvements and remove the capitol to Springfield, 
both of which objects were included in one bill. Mr. Lincoln 
was put forward to do the leading work for the bill. The bill 
was carried and it made him a very popular man in his county, 
and especially in Springfield. 



ABKAHAM LINCOLN. 379 

But this session of the legislature was more remarkable for 
what seemed to be an insignificant matter. Abraham Lincoln 
and Stephen A. Douglas met here for the first time. Mr. 
Douglas was but twenty -three years old, the youngest and small- 
est man in the house — "the least man I ever saw," Lincoln 
said. The state was overwhelmingly democratic. The slavery 
agitation was getting strong all over the country. The demo- 
cratic party was pro-slavery; the whig party not anti-slavery, 
but complacent and conciliatory toward "the institution." To 
show its loyalty, the democratic party in the Illinois legislature, 
took pains to pass some pro-slavery resolutions. Stephen A. 
Douglas was zealous for these resolutions, and then and there 
took his public position on the side of slavery and its bad policy 
and inhumanity, to be carried on to an untimely grave and a 
disappointed and unfruitful life. Abraham Lincoln had seen 
slaves sold in New Orleans, and had felt a pang of sorrow for 
the poor victims of human cupidity and power. His judgment, 
his conscience, his heart, were against slavery. Politically he 
held it as bad policy to hold slaves even where the constitution 
allowed it. Into the territories the constitution could not carry 
slavery, he said. Only the jjeoijle of the territories could 
establish it there. So on this mild anti-slavery ground he took 
his stand in this legislature, against the democratic policy, in 
advance of the whig policy, in what seemed a hopeless minority, 
to rise in jiower and influence and win a victory for his princi- 
ples throughout the world and an immortality of glory and 
renown for himself. 

A¥lien the resolutions were passed, Mr. Lincoln and Dan 
Stone, whig members from Sangamon, entered their protest 
upon the Journal of the House, with their reasons, which were, 
that "While the Congress of the United States has no power to 
interfere with the institution of slavery in the different states, 
and while the promulgation of abolition doctrines tends rather to 
increase than abate its evils, still the institution of slavery is 
founded on both injustice and bad policy, and Congress has 
power, under the constitution, to abolish slavery in the District 



380 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

of Columbia, though this power ought not to be exercised unless 
at the request of the people of said district/' 

This was Mr. Lincoln's mild position, then taken, and there 
he stood until military necessity compelled him, as the com- 
mander-in-chief of the Union army, to grant freedom to all the 
slaves. 

The positions then taken by Douglas and Lincoln were 
argued by them through^ many years, and on many platforms, 
and their arguments had more to do in bringing the subject in 
a political form before the people than any other. They must be 
pronounced the foremost men in this battle of the giants. 

It must be kept in mind that Mr. Lincoln had not yet 
entered his profession; was very poor; practicing, surveying, to 
earn his bread while studying law; that he walked to and from 
the legislature, a hundred miles each way, and yet had already 
become a central figure around which was soon to gather the 
moral and political forces of one of the greatest movements of 
the world. His strong common sense^ becoming bright with the 
light of genius, won him favor wherever he was known, and 
fixed upon him the eyes of some as one who might develop 
great power. 

He had long been in the habit of putting his thoughts into 
writing. He wrote much. This gave him the power of clear 
statement. His knowledge was limited, but what he knew, he 
knew well; and he thought and wrote about it, till it became a 
part of himself. 

With all his joviality, he was a serious man, and studied pro- 
foundly the problems of life. "Oh! how hard it is to die and 
not be able to leave the world any better for one's little life in' 
it," he said to a friend in his early manhood. In his seriousness, 
he was sometimes oppressed to melancholy. He often meditated 
upon the sad side of life, and groaned in spirit over the corrup- 
tions of the world. His own life was a profound study to him. 
Opening so obscurely and humbly, and coming on by such 
unpromising ways, hindered and oppressed, and set back and 
defeated so often, where was it leading to? He felt an inex- 
pressible yearning for knowledge, usefulness and recognition; 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN". 381 

but would he ever attain these? He was childlike in his simpli- 
city and honesty He assumed nothing, but was always just 
himself and nothing else. 

Mr. Lincoln, from his early youth, was religious in spirit. 
He had no professional or dogmatic religion, but was tenderly 
reverent toward the great Father of his spirit, and the souls of 
his children. His early bible study, his '* angel mother's" 
reverent lessons, and Parson Elkin's influence, made impressions 
that he never lost. He adopted no creed, joined no church, yet 
respected all. 

In his later readings he had fallen in with some works of 
science. He was much interested in geology. It brought him 
close to nature and nature's God. He studied human nature 
everywhere. Even when jovial he was studious, and through 
the apparently trifling side of his life, found avenues into 
serious reflections and reverent communings. 

ME. LINCOLN A LAWYER. 

In the autumn of 1836, Mr. Lincoln was admitted to the bar, 
having done nearly all his studying by himself, and having been 
a surveyor, and a legislator, and a general reader of politics and 
the news in the meantime. While studying, he had attended 
some courts, and familiarized himself a little with their proceed- 
ings. He received at once an invitation from Major Stuart to 
become his law partner in Springfield. Mr. Lincoln was already 
well known in Springfield, and honored for what he had done 
to make it the capital of the state. In April, 1837, he took up 
his abode there. 

Mr. Lincoln was now well established in the principles in 
life to which he always adhered ; was a genuine temperance man, 
openly and actively on the side of that great reform ; was a 
politician of moderately reformatory tendencies; was a humane 
man, and profoundly sincere and honest. 

He had had a curious and marked experience at New Salem. 
This rude country village had served him well as a place in 
which to get a start in life ; and he now left it with many 
misgivings and questionings as to his future career. 



383 OUR PRESIDEKTS. 

The next July he was summoned to an extra session of the 
Icgishiture, and very soon after Mr. Stuart was elected to Con- 
gress; so that their legal practice was somewhat interrupted. 
The next year he was re-elected to the legislature. At once he 
was recognized as the leading whig member, and he came within 
one vote of being made the speaker. The partisan aspects of the 
state had changed much. The result of Jackson^s financial 
policy had, as the whigs said, brought the cruelly hard times of 
1837, under which the country was yet suffering terribly; the 
gag-law in Congress, under Van Buren, which refused to con- 
sider all petitions and papers relating to slavery, was unpopular 
with all free-speech men, and the two together being domo- 
cratic measures, had weakened the democratic and strengthened 
the whig party. No business of great importance came before 
this legislature. 

Mr. Lincoln's notoriety soon brought him legal business, 
which he attended to with the utmost fidelity. It was not long 
before he secured a great reputation as a case and jury lawyer. 
His good humor, fairness, his knowledge of jurors and per- 
suasive power over them, and skill in managing cases, gave him 
an extensive business, so that in all the circuit of counties 
through which he practiced he was often on nearly all of the 
important cases. 

In 1840 Mr. Lincoln was again elected to the legislature, and 
served because it was at home, but he refused longer to accept 
this office. 

About this time a strange episode in Mr. Lincoln's life 
occurred, not at all creditable to his judgment or moral cour- 
age, according to our notions of these things, A poem appeared 
in the Sangamon "Journal" sharply reflecting on James Shields, 
a young lawyer of Springfield, afterward General Shields and 
United States senator. It was anonymous, but written by a 
young lady. Shields was fiercely angry about it, and must 
know the author or fight the editor, Simeon Francis. The 
young lady was a personal friend of Mr. Lincoln. Francis 
went to Lincoln for counsel. It was understood that somebody 
must fight a duel with the hot-blooded young Shields or be 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 383 

branded as a coward. Lincoln told the editor that if the young 
man should again demand the author's name to tell him that 
he, Lincoln, held himself responsible for the poem. When 
Shields was told this he at once sent a challenge to Lincoln. 
It Avas accepted, and Lincoln chose broadswords as weapons, 
and put himself under training. The duel was to be on Bloody 
Island, in the Mississippi river ; but friends interfered and 
prevented it, but its contemplation was a stain on both their 
reputations. 

It has been charged upon Mr. Lincoln that he indulged in 
smutty stories unfit to be heard by chaste ears, and his biog- 
raphers accept the charge as true, but exjDlain it on two 
grounds : First, that it is common in the members of the legal 
profession, who in their business become familiar with the filth 
and smut of humanity ; and second, that he told these stories 
because of their wit, and not because of their smut. They say 
he was intensely fond of wit, and had no sympathy with human 
filth. But no explanation atones for the blemish of such a 
practice. It is no part of a true man, and no matter who 
indulges in it, nor under what circumstances, it is not only a 
fault but a vicious practice. We can well understand how Mr. 
Lincoln had been familiar with such jokes and stories from his 
boyhood, by the society in which he had mingled, but that when 
he became a man he did not revolt against their use and 
discontinue them is against his taste and moral sensibility. 

In 1840 Mr. Lincoln dissolved his partnership with Mr. 
Stuart, and formed one with Judge S. T. Logan, of Springfield. 
He now resolved to devote himself more to his profession, but 
each new political canvass called for his strong services. 

In 1842 he married Miss Mary Todd, a daughter of Hon. 
Eobert S. Todd, of Lexington, Kentucky. Miss Todd had 
resided for some time at Springfield. They did not set up a 
new home at once, but boarded at the Globe Tavern. His 
private letters at this time indicate much pleasure in his new 
relation. 

The next year he began to have Congressional aspirings, but 
his friend Baker got the nomination, and he helped elect him. 



384 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

Mr. Lincoln was a party man, and trained himself to keep 
step with his party. His ideal statesman was Henry Clay, and 
he was a close party man and went himself no farther in any 
direction than he could carry his party. 

In 1844 Henry Clay was the whig candidate for the presi- 
dency. Mr. Lincoln supported him with his whole heart and 
power, speaking in many parts of Illinois and Indiana, and 
everywhere putting all his energy and enthusiasm into the can- 
vass. But he was defeated, and great was Mr. Lincoln's chagrin 
and sorrow. It weakened his respect for the jDopular judgment. 
He had built up great hopes for the country on his party and 
his political idol, hopes not so well founded as he thought. 
Neither his party nor his idol had the merit he attributed to it. 
The whigs of the country were woefully disappointed. Mr. 
Clay had captivMed many as he had Mr. Lincoln. Everywhere 
there was grief and disheartenment among the defeated parti- 
sans of the great Kentuckian. 

In 1846 Mr. Lincoln went to Lexington, Kentucky, to hear 
Mr. Clay's speech on the gradual emancipation of the slaves. 
The speech was written and read. It disappointed him. It was 
cool and commonplace. The fire and force he had expected 
were not in it. The great orator and statesman were not mani- 
fest in the performance. He was introduced to Mr. Clay, who 
was cool and condescending, though he knew what a friend and 
helper he had in Mr. Lincoln. He invited Lincoln to his home 
at Ashland. It was such a gracious expression of friendship as 
was infinitely pleasing to our humble Illinois devotee of the 
great sage of Ashland. He went and was graciously entertained 
and patronized by the honored whig leader. But he came away 
a sad though a wiser man than when he went. Mr. Clay, while 
polite, polished and hospitable, was so conscious of his superi- 
ority, so condescending, as to make his guest painfully sensible 
of his common littleness. Mr. Clay was proud, princely, digni- 
fied; Mr. Lincoln was humble, plain, childlike; how could they 
affiliate ? He felt that Mr. Clay was overbearing and domineer- 
ing, not only to him, but to everybody. And so he saw his idol 
broken. It was a good lesson to the partisanship and idolatry 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN". 385 

of Mr. Lincoln to a great leader. It taught him that princi- 
ples rather than men are to be folloAved and have the devotion 
of true men. 

MR. LIIS^COLN A CONGRESSMA]^-. 

December 6, 1847, Mr. Lincoln took his seat in the Thirtieth 
Congress, as a member of the Lower House. He Avas elected the 
autumn before, and made an active canvass of his district, 
which gave him the highest majority it ever gave to a whig. In 
his canvass he discussed the annexation of Texas, the war with 
Mexico and all the affiliated measures of the j^ro-slavery democ- 
racy, protesting against the whole; and also the importance of 
a protective tariff to the industries of the country which were 
then suffering, as he claimed, by a democratic reduction of the 
tariff. 

Mr. Polk was then president, and it Avas his custom, in his 
messages, to set forth the raiding practices of Mexico upon the 
territory of the United States, as though against the laws of 
nations, and patiently borne by us till forbearance had ceased to 
be a virtue, and, that war had been declared against Mexico 
only when she had practiced Avar upon us, Avhen the simple facts 
Avere that we had sent our army all the Avay from the Nueces to 
the Eio Grande, some tAvo hundred miles into the Mexican 
territory, and jarovoked the Mexican soldiers to raid uj)on our 
outposts. Mr. Lincoln took up this matter in a series of resolu- 
tions, Avhich he offered, asking of the president information as 
to the spots Avhere our settlements had been invaded, the partic- 
ular spot where our peaceful citizens had been murdered, by Mexi- 
can soldiery, and for detailed information as to particulars. They 
were so full of "the required spots" where Mexican outrages had 
been committed upon our quiet citizens that they got the name of 
the ''spot resolutions." In vieAv of the facts in the case, they made 
the president's messages ridiculous. Mr. Lincoln made a char- 
acteristic speech in behalf of the resolutions, but, as the Avhigs 
Avere in the minority, the resolutions Avere laid on the table. 
The whigs in Congress Avere in a dilemma. They did not believe in 
the Avar; kncAv it had been provoked and forced upon the Mexicans 
25 



386 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

by our government to filcli from them their territory, and yet, if 
they did not vote supplies to carry it on, and support our sol- 
diers in their dangerous exposures, they were called unpatriotic 
and barbarous. In a speech in Congress, January 12, 1848, Mr. 
Lincoln, in a cool, clear and exact statement of the facts in the 
case, showed how the country stood in relation to the war, and 
how it placed the whig party. 

On the first of June, 1848, the whig convention met at Phila- 
delphia, to nominate a candidate for the presidency. Henry 
Clay was the idol of the party, but he had been defeated. 
Mr. Lincoln had seen him and lost his former confidence in 
him. Mr. Lincoln was in the convention, and did not apj)rove 
of nominating Clay. 

General Taylor, a nominal whig, though he had not voted 
for forty years, had come back from the Mexican war covered 
with the glory of a military chieftain. His career had been a 
succession of victories, which the democratic papers all over the 
country had magnified into most magnificent and brilliant 
exploits of military genius. His dispatches had been the simple, 
unpretending facts of what his army had done. Their modesty 
was praised as much as his military genius. He was the hero — 
the Cincinnatus of the hour. The democrats made his glory 
and fired the country with it, and the whigs in convention 
caught it upon their banner. They nominated General Zachary 
Taylor as their candidate. Of course it put them in an awkward 
position to glorify General Taylor and denounce the war that 
made him their candidate and was sure to elect him. But this 
was their good luck, and Lincoln urged his nomination and that 
they should make the most of the tide in his favor. He coun- 
seled saying as little as possible about the beginning of the war 
which the whigs were in no way responsible for. 

Mr. Lincoln took up the canvass in behalf of General Taylor 
with great zeal, going first from Washington to New England 
and making several speeches there. He canvassed Illinois and 
in his own district gave Taylor almost as large a vote as he had 
got himself when elected to Congress. 

Early in the winter Mr. Lincoln returned to Congress^ and 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 387 

went as a recognized anti-slavery man, wlio would do as much 
against slavery as the constitution would permit him to do. 
He was a constitutional man, loyal to that great charter of 
American liberty as to the rights of man and conscience. In 
his first session in Congress he had voted forty-two times for the 
Wilmot Proviso, had stood with John Quincy Adams stoutly 
for the right of petition, and was counted as an ally of Joshua 
R. Geddings and men of his convictions and conscience. Dur- 
ing this session he prepared a bill for the abolition of slavery in 
the District of Columbia with the consent of the people of the 
District. But some of the people who agreed to his plan at 
first, withdrew from it, and time was not permitted him to 
begin anew, and so his bill fell through before coming to a vote. 
His service in Congress closed with honor and profit to himself. 
As Mr. Lincoln became more acquainted with educated men 
and society, he felt more intensely his lack of early education; 
and he returned from "Washington to his home resolved to make 
up for his deficiency as much as he could. So he took up the 
study of geometry and went through the first six books of 
Euclid. His success among educated men surprised him. He 
felt a constant gratitude to them for their appreciation of his 
motives and their kindness to him. He was always self-depre- 
cating, and often wondered how others could think so well of 
him. This self-deprecation was greatly magnified by his 
conscious lack of an education. 



RETURN TO HIS PROFESSION. 

On his return from Congress Mr. Lincoln took up again the 
practice of his profession; and now for a number of years had one 
of the most peaceful and enjoyable portions of his life. He had 
attained a conspicuous place among his countrymen; had formed 
a large acquaintance among the great and good; had put his 
original obscurity far behind him; had in his profession a way to 
obtain an honorable living and be useful; had a wife and little 
family; had books, friends, appreciative society; all of which he 
enjoyed in their full measure. 



388 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

By the distingnishecl lawyers who knew him well and prac- 
ticed with him, he was profoundly appreciated as a man and 
lawyer. Judge Caton, said of him: "He applied the principles 
of law to the transactions of men with great clearness and 
precision. He was a close reasoner. He reasoned by analogy 
and enforced his yiews by apt illustrations. His mode of speak- 
ing was generally of a plain and unimpassioned character, and 
yet he was the author of some of the most beautiful and eloquent 
passages in our language, which, if collected, would form a 
valuable contribution to American literature. The most 
punctilious honor ever marked his professional and private life." 

Who will ever know what society, literature, learning, the 
country and humanity, have failed to have that is rich and 
grand, because his great soul was cheated of an education by the 
hard fortune of his early years? 

Judge Breese, said of him: ''For my single self, I have for a 
quarter of a century, regarded Mr. Lincoln as the finest lawyer I 
ever knew, and of a professional bearing so high toned and 
honorable as justly, and without derogating from the claims of 
others, entitling him to be presented to the claims of the 
profession, as a model well worthy the closest imitation." 

Judge Drummond, said of him: "I have no hesitation in 
saying that he was one of the ablest lawyers I have ever known. 
No intelligent man who ever watched Mr, Lincoln through a 
hard-contested case at the bar ever questioned his great ability. 
With a probity of character known of all, with an intuitive 
insight into the human heart, with a clearness of statement 
which was itself an argument, with uncommon power and felicity 
of illustration — often it is true, of a plain and homely kind — 
and with that sincerity and earnestness of manner which carried 
conviction, he was, perhaps, one of the most successful Jury 
lawyers we have ever had in the state. He always tried a case 
fairly and honestly. He never, intentionally, misrepresented 
the evidence of a witness, or the argument of an opponent. He 
met both squarely, and, if he could not explain the one, or 
answer the other, he admitted it. He never misstated the law 
according to his own intelligent view of it." 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 389 

In 1852, on the death of Heni-y Clay, Mr. Lincoln delivered 
a enlogy on that famous statesman of his day. The eulogy was 
calm, and probably quite less enthusiastic th^n he would have 
given before his visit to Ashland. The closing words are worth 
repeating here. " Such a man the times have demanded, and 
such, in the providence of God, was given us. But he is gone. 
Let us strive to deserve, as far as mortals may, the continued 
care of Divine Providence, trusting that in future national 
emergencies, he will not fail to provide us the instruments of 
safety and security.^' No instrument, since the days of Wash- 
ington, has seemed to the lovers of our republic, so providential 
as Mr. Lincoln himself. To no other have his words such a 
profound application. And it seems almost certain, that in the 
generations to come, he will be held as the preserver of the 
country of which Washington was the father. 

But great national events were in progress. The northern 
section of the country was rapidly overgrowing the southern. 
The great northwest was inviting settlements. The western 
prairies were attracting the hardy and enterprising from the 
eastern states and Europe. It was becoming clear that the 
balance of power was soon to be in the north. The political 
leaders of the south who were devoted to slavery, were getting 
uneasy and absolute in their determination to rule or ruin. In 
1850, the free state of California was admitted to the Union. 
There was no balancing slave-state to come in with it. Califor- 
nia had grown to a free state on territory won from Mexico by 
the pro-slavery war. This was a result not in the original 
calculation. 

In the whig canvass for General Scott, in 1852, Mr. Lincoln 
took but little interest, and General Pierce, who ran against 
him, was elected. 

In 1854, the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which shut 
slavery out of the whole northwest, was abrogated, with a view 
to force slavery into Kansas and Nebraska. This was an act of 
bad faith, which stirred Mr. Lincoln deeply. Northern demo- 
crats, particularly Mr. Douglas, acted in complicity with the 
south in the' matter, and this stirred northern blood far more 



390 OUK PRESIDENTS. 

than the action of southern men. It was understood that Mr. 
Douglas was the author of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, which 
opened those territories to slavery. It made him unpopular 
with many of his friends, and when he went home to Chicago 
and attempted to make a speech in defense of his work, he 
was prevented. 

A few weeks after, at the autumnal fair at Springfield, he 
ma&e, before a great audience of representative men from all 
parts of the state, his defense of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, which 
Mr. Lincoln heard, and the next day replied to in one of the 
most masterly efforts of his life. He spoke three hours, but no 
complete report of his speech Avas made. The press, which 
sympathized with him, gave enthusiastic accounts of it. It is 
certain that it inaugurated a new political era in Illinois. A 
few days after, Mr. Douglas sj^oke agam in Peoria, and Mr. 
Lincoln followed him with much the same effect. This speech 
was reported. Mr. Douglas retired, and they held no more 
debates that season. But a mighty wave of thought and 
emotion was started among the people which would not stop. 

On May 39, 1856, a convention was held at Bloomington, 
Illinois, of all men in the state opposed to the democratic party. 
Mr. Lincoln was present, and made a most powerful speech. 
One biographer says of it : ''Never was an audience more com- 
pletely electrified by human eloquence. Again and again during 
its delivery they sprang to their feet and upon the benches, and 
testified by long continued shouts and the waving of hats how 
deeply the speaker had wrought upon their minds and hearts. 
It fused the mass of hitherto incongruous elements into perfect 
homogeneity; and from that day to the present they have worked 
together in fraternal union." The republican party was there 
organized in Illinois. It sent delegates to the next national 
convention with Mr. Lincoln's name as a candidate for the vice- 
presidency. But Mr. Dayton was nominated with Mr. John C. 
Fremont, and Mr. Lincoln was only thus formally introduced 
to the nation. 

The Kansas-Nebraska excitement grew rapidly. Mr. Lin- 
coln, like all northern men of his opinions and character, grew 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 391 

more and more resolute in the reijublieau doctrine to stop the 
spread of slavery, and lead it into its present constitutional 
localities. And with this resolution grew a stronger and 
stronger opposition to slavery itself. 

THE GREAT DEBATE. 

In 1858 began the celebrated campaign for ^ the United 
States senatorship between Mr. Douglas and Mr. Lincoln. Mr. 
Lincoln began his discussion of the great subject then before 
the country in June, at the state republican convention in 
Springfield, with the following almost prophetic opening : 

*'If we could first know where we are, and whither we are 
tending, we could better judge what to do and how to do it. We 
are now far into the fifth year since a policy was initiated with 
the avowed object and confident promise of putting an end to 
slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy that 
agitation has not only not ceased, but has constantly aug- 
mented. In my opinion, it will not cease until a crisis shall 
have been reached and passed. 'A house divided against itself 
cannot stand.' I believe this government cannot endure per- 
manently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union 
to be dissolved. I do not expect the house to fall, but I do 
expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, 
or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the 
further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall 
rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction, 
or its advocates will push it forward till it shall become alike 
lawful in all the states, old as well as new, north as well 
as south." 

The speech went on to show what the advocates of slavery, 
then in charge of the government, had done to open the terri- 
tories to slavery, to prevent them from rejecting slavery; to 
carry slaves into the free states, and what they were i:)reparing 
to do, to open the way to force slavery, by a Supreme Court 
decision into the free states. But this result must be prevented, 
he contended, by putting the government into new hands which 
would put it back into its original condition in which it should 



392 OUR rilESIDENTS. 

move toward the ultimate extinction of slavery. He closed in 
these words: "We shall not fail — if we stand firm, we shall not 
fail. Wise counsels may accelerate or mistakes delay it, but 
sooner or later, the victory is sure to come." 

lie made two or three other speeches, and Mr. Douglas made 
some, to one or two of which he rei^lied, when he made a propo- 
sition to Mr. Douglas to canvass the state together. But Mr. 
Douglas objected on the ground that his arrangements were too 
far made, but proposed to join with him in a discussion at seven 
places in different parts of the states. This arrangement was 
made and these discussions were held, awakening an immense 
interest among the people, not only of Illinois, but of the whole 
country. The great issue of that time was laid bare before 
the people. The discussion went over the whole country as a 
republican campaign document, and was read and talked of till 
the whole reading north became acquainted with the issue as 
there presented. 

Mr. Lincoln lost the election to the Senate, but he gained 
the ear and confidence of the republican north. The discussion 
consolidated the republican party, intensified the northern 
opposition to slavery, and still more the opposition to the party 
in power which was using all its energy to carry out the grasping 
purjooses of a few radical pro-slavery leaders. The ultimate 
result of the discussion was that Mr. Lincoln won the presidency, 
the destruction of slavery, a country all free, and a martyrdom 
that put his name where it stands among the "immortal few 
that were not born to die." 

In 1859, at the republican state convention at Decatur, two 
rails from a lot of three thousand which Mr. Lincoln had made 
when he first came to the state, were brought into the conven- 
tion where he was soon to speak, considerably ornamented, and 
bearing this inscription: "Abraham Lincoln, the 'rail-splitter,* 
candidate for the presidency in I860." 

During the latter part of 1859 and the early part of 18G0, 
Mr. Lincoln traveled into Kansas, Ohio, New York and New 
England. His visit in Kansas was an ovation. The people 
knew they had a friend in this great-hearted man, and they 



AlJKAHAM LINCOLN. 393 

came in immense tlirongs to see and hear him. They knew him, 
his principles and power, already, by reading his discussions, 
and they wanted to look at his person and hear his voice. In 
Ohio he found a hearty reception, and his speeches kindled 
the usual enthusiasm. He went on to New York, under an 
arrangement with Reverend Henry Ward Beecher, to speak in 
Plymouth church. He heard M-r. Beecher, which was a great 
pleasure to him; but found that arrangements had been made 
for him to speak in Cooper Institute. He was anxious about 
his speech. He knew his lack of polish; his crude appearance; 
his want of education; now to come before the educated, 
polished and strong men of this great city, was a trial to his 
courage. The great hall was packed with brains, culture, worth. 
The magnates covered the platform. William Cullen Bryant, 
Avhose poems he had read and admired, introduced him. As he 
rose and stood in his great height, six feet and four inches, in 
that dazzling throng, he was bewildered. What business had 
he, a poor, awkward, uneducated man of the wild west, to 
stand there and expect to be heard with patience? He was 
embarrassed and humiliated; but he had something to say, and 
he must say it. He began with a low voice and a slow utterance. 
He laid down his iniatory propositions with great deliberation. 
The great audience listened with breathless attention. It was 
something new, a new man, manner and statement; it was 
clear, convincing, brilliant. He had got but little way on in 
his terse and strong work, before a vigorous round of applause 
assured him that he was understood and appreciated. He now 
began to be at home; his manner became more free and confi- 
dent; his voice filled and yielded readily to the sentiment. He 
became master of the situation, and went through to the close 
carrying his great audience with him in rapturous admiration 
of his argument, rhetoric and unique and wonderful illustra- 
tion. The whole performance was so original, incisive, marrow- 
searching and powerful that it became the great political and 
literary feast of the season. The papers spread it and eulogized 
it; the people read it and talked about it. The writer of this 
sketch well remembers the enthusiasm he felt in reading the 



394 OUU PRESIDENTS. 

speech, and in the conviction that a great and brilliant star had 
risen in the political firmament. 

Mr. Lincoln made many valnable acquaintances in New 
York, who served him and the country well in his time of 
sore need. 

He had a son in Harvard college whom he Avent to see; and 
while there he made speeches in different j)laces, always with 
similar results. It was a study to him to know why educated 
New York and New England so readily accepted and enjoyed 
his humble efforts at public speaking; why college presidents 
and professors came to hear him and set him before their 
students as an example in many particulars. Perhaps never in 
his life had he been more appreciated than in the speeches made 
on this eastern trip. They were the best he had ever made. He 
was really all the while improving. They told mightily for his 
future and for his country. His manner of treating the 
southern people in these speeches was very acceptable to the 
people of the north. He was fair, candid, kind — even affec- 
tionate toward them. He was southern born ; his wife was 
southern born and reared. His heart was large, and he really 
loved everybody. This good nature so j^ervaded his speeches 
that they won upon the public. Then they were intensely 
logical and searching.. They went to the roots of right and 
wrong; they magnified just principles; loved freedom and hated 
slavery; they were put in simple but choice language; they were 
full of nut-shell statements of important facts and principles; 
and, beyond all this, they were unique in their quaint and 
crystaline originality. 

THE COMING STOEM. 

During all this great discussion, Avhich was getting more and 
more intense and thorough, there were constant threats of 
secession and disunion from the southern leaders. The northern 
people were but little moved by these threats. They counted 
them as the bravado of the fire-eating radicals in which the 
solid southern people took little part. They believed the peoiAe 
of the south loved the union and would stand by it. They could 



ABKAHAM LINCOLN. 395 

see nothing but disaster and wretchedness to the south in any 
attempt to be separate from the north, peaceably or otherwise. 
The north had numbers, wealth, mechanism, skill, productive 
ability, a laborious people, who had never been found wanting in 
patriotism far surpassing the south; and the people of the north 
could not believe the people of the south would be so unwise as 
to deliberately commit themselves to the folly of secession — to 
their own certain ruin. Moreover, they thought the peoj)le 
of the south wanted to maintain slavery, which they would be 
sure to lose if they attempted disunion. 

In April of this year, 1860, the national democratic conven- 
tion met in Charleston, South Carolina, only to fail to nominate 
Mr. Douglas, or any other man. It adjourned till June to meet 
in Baltimore. In the meantime the radical southern element 
nominated John C. Breckenridge, of Kentucky, and the consti- 
tutional union element nominated John Bell, of Tennessee. 
The regular convention at Baltimore nominated Mr. Douglas. 
This break-up forced by the southern radicals made sure the 
election of the republican nominee. The republican convention 
met in Chicago, June 16, a very large and enthusiastic conven- 
tion. William H. Seward and Mr. Lincoln were the leading 
candidates. On the third ballot Mr. Lincoln was nominated. 
So it turned out that Mr. Douglas and Mr. Lincoln ran for the 
presidency at the same time, the one the leader of a broken and 
discordant party, the other of an enthusiastic and united host. 

Mr. Lincoln soon began to realize both the pleasures and 
annoyances of his candidacy. Friends came from everywhere 
to see him. Nobody seemed to have so many friends as he. 
He had to abandon all attempts to see them at his house, and 
resort to the executive chamber of the state house. It seemed 
sure to his great party, now full of enthusiasm for its principles, 
that he would be elected, and office-seekers became abundant. 
That which began as a pleasure soon began to have its vexations. 
He accepted the nomination in humiliation. He had always 
distrusted his own capacities, and this feeling of incompetency 
often overwhelmed him. Ho was intensely honest and earnest 
in his republican principles. They had come to be his religion. 



396 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

He felt that a crisis had come to his country when the spread 
of slavery must be stopjoed, or the foul leprosy would spread 
over the whole country and the republic would become a slav- 
ocracy more unendurable than any monarchy. In one of his 
anxious, desponding moods, he one evening asked Mr. Newton 
Bateman, superintendent of public instruction, whose office 
opened into the executive chamber, to come in. He locked the 
doors and they sat down and talked. Mr. Lincoln had done 
this to unbosom himself to his friend. He took a little book 
from his drawer containing the names of all the voters of 
Springfield and how they would vote. They ran them over 
together. He was particular to note the names of the ministers 
and leading churchmen. At length he said in great sadness: 
"Here are twenty-three ministers, of different denominations, 
and all of them are against me but three; and here are a great 
many prominent members of the churches, a very large majority 
of whom are against me. Mr. Bateman, I am not a Christian — 
God knows I would be one — but I have carefully read the bible 
and I do not understand this book,^^ and he drew from his 
bosom a pocket New Testament. ''These men well know," he 
continued, ''that I am for freedom in the territories, freedom 
everywhere as far as the constitution and laws will permit, and 
that my opponents are for slavery. They know this, and yet 
with this book in their hands, in the light of which human 
bondage cannot live a moment, they are going to vote against 
me. I do not understand it at all." 

Here he stopped, overcome with emotion. Then he walked 
the room, seeking to regain self-possession. At length, his cheeks 
wet with tears, he said, with a slow, tremulous voice: "I know 
there is a God, and that he hates injustice and slavery. I see 
the storm coming, and I know that his hand is in it. If he has 
a place and work for me, and I think he has, I believe I am 
ready. I am nothing, but truth is everything. I know I am 
right, for Christ teaches it, and Christ is God. I have told 
them that a house divided against itself cannot stand, and Christ 
and reason say the same ; and they will find it so. Douglas 
don't care whether slavery is voted up or voted down, but God 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 397 

cares, and humanity cares, and I care ; and with God's help I 
shall not fail. I may not see the end, hut it will come, and 
I shall be vindicated, and these men will find that they have not 
read their bibles aright." 

In saying this his manner was indescribably solemn. After 
a little silence he resumed: " Doesn't it appear strange that men 
can ignore the moral aspects of this contest? Revelation could 
not make it plainer to me that slavery or the government must 
be destroyed. The future would be something awful, as I look 
at it, but for this rock on which I stand [the New Testament, 
which he still held in his hand], especially with the knowledge 
of how these ministers are going to vote. It seems as if God had 
borne with this thing [slavery] until the very teachers of religion 
have come to defend it from the bible [quite common in the 
south], and to claim for it a divine character and sanction ; 
and now the cup of iniquity is full, and the vials of wrath will 
be poured out." 

It was not often that Mr. Lincoln so revealed his inner self ; 
but Doctor Bateman was his intimate friend, whose excellent 
christian character he j^rofoundly respected. This conversation 
reveals one of the secrets of Mr. Lincoln's power with the 
people. He was profoundly confident of being on God's side 
in these great matters of slavery and the existence of the 
republic. Mr. Lincoln lived two lives, one a profoundly thought- 
ful and religious one, the other an outward. Jocose one. Few 
saw much of his inward life, though his great speeches gave 
enough of its flavor to win and carry all true souls who heard or 
read them. 

But the great canvass moved on. The votes of- the nation 
were cast and counted. Mr. Lincoln was elected. The friends 
of equality and liberty were Jubilant. The friends of slavery 
were sullen and threatening. 

At once secession began to be prepared for. South Carolina, 
the hot-bed of nullification under Calhoun, was now the breed- 
ing place of secession. On the tenth of November, 1860, four 
days after Mr. Lincoln's election, a bill was introduced in its 
legislature calling out ten thousand volunteers. On the tenth 



398 OUR PRESIDEKTS. 

and eleventh of December, its senators in Congress resigned. 
A convention was called on the seventeenth, and on the twen- 
tieth South Carolina seceded, and arranged fcr a convention 
of seceding states at Montgomery. 

On the tenth of December the United States secretary of the 
treasury, Howell Cobb, resigned. On the eighteenth, Floyd, the 
secretary of war, accepted a requisition from South Carolina for 
her share of United States arms for 1861. Meetings were held 
all over the south to prepare for secession. On the eighth 
of January, 1861, a caucus of southern senators at Washington 
counseled immediate secession. Soon Mississippi, Florida, 
Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas, accei^ted the counsel. 
Forts, and arsenals and arms were seized in all these states. In 
Mr. Buchanan's cabinet the southern secretaries boldly demanded 
the giving up to South Carolina the forts at Charleston. 
Edwin M. Stanton, attorney-general, told Mr. Buchanan he 
had no right to do it ; that it would be treason to the United 
States. Buchanan's government was full of treason ; Washing- 
ton was a hot-bed of treason. All through the north were 
sympathizers with southern traitors who had done much to mis- 
lead them concerning the true public sentiment of the north. 
Madness and wickedness ruled the hour. Secession and the 
Southern Confederacy became accomplished facts under Mr. 
Buchanan, and by the aid of his partisans in the north. The 
whole south was seething with disloyalty and secession. Never 
were so many well-meaning people blindly led into ruin by fire- 
eating and selfish leaders. Virtue had set down in the lap of 
vice ; the milk of human kindness had soured in christian 
bosoms ; wisdom had lost its brains, and patriotism its heart, 
all over the volcanic secession realm. 

On the eleventh of February Mr. Lincoln started for Wash- 
ington. At the depot he made this farewell address to his 
neighbors : "My friends, no one not in my position can appre- 
ciate the sadness that I feel at this parting. To this people I 
owe all that I am. Here I have lived for more than a quarter 
of a century. Here my children were born, and here one of 
them lies buried. I know not how soon I shall see you again. 



ABRAHAM LIKCOLK. 399 

A duty devolves upon me which is greater, perhaps, than that 
which has devolved upon any other man since the days of 
Washington. He never would have succeeded except for the aid 
of divine providence, upon which he at all times relied. I feel 
that I cannot succeed without the same divine aid which sus- 
tained him, and on the same Almighty Being I place my 
reliance for support, and I hope you, my friends, will pray that 
I .may receive that divine assistance without which I cannot 
succeed, but with which success is certain. I bid you all an 
affectionate farewell." 

All the cities through which he passed, gave him great 
receptions. When he reached Philadelphia the plot against his 
life had become well understood, by the detective who for many 
days had been in search of it, and it was arranged that he should 
go to Washington in a sleeping car some two or three days 
before his family and traveling friends, which he did in quiet 
and safety. It was not true as reported, that he went concealed 
in a cloak and Scotch cap. 

He went where he was not wanted; probably four out of 
every five persons in Washington, wishing he could not get there. 

MR. LINCOLlSr PRESIDENT. 

On the fourth of March, 18G1, Mr. Lincoln was inaugurated 
president. His inaugural address was conciliatory and assuring 
to the south. Had it been well read and considered in the 
south, there would have been no more trouble. It was rational, 
constitutional, humane, patriotic. 

He appointed William H. Seward, his great republican com- 
petitor, as his secretary. Other great men were put into his 
cabinet. He acted with the greatest prudence and conciliation. 
Only seven states had declared for secession. It would be 
impossible for them to run a government unless more joined 
them. There were fifteen slave states. It was his policy to save 
the other eight slave states to the union if possible. All his 
earlier efforts were made to retain the border states. There 
was great wisdom in this. It kept the war, when it came, mainly 
in the slave states. It was his effort, also, to do nothing which 



400 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

the red-hot seceders could construe into an act of war. He 
repaired forts, furnished arms, and put defenses in order with 
the utmost quiet. In every way he dealt patiently and tenderly 
witli the eratic sisters. But when the suppressed secession rage 
could be no longer restrained, it burst out, in the onslaught 
upon Fort Sumpter. Now, war was begun by the seceders; and 
the poor, misled people of the south shouted for joy. How 
little they knew Avhat they were doing. They had followed 
their blind leaders to an awful precipice, and now were clamorous 
to jump off. That cannon boom which so elated the south, 
filled the north with inexpressible sorrow. In that sorrow was 
pity for the misled southern people, patriotism for their endan- 
gered country, and indignation for the traitor leaders. 

At once the thinking and loyal people of the north felt sure, 
that the first ball that struck Fort Sumpter, struck with a 
greater force the chain of the slave. Many in the north wel- 
comed it as the quickest way out of the slavery iniquity; yet 
with a great pain they turned away from their peaceful employ- 
ments to go south and punish the traitors for their treason. In 
the north there were two great ruling ideas, — we will save the 
country and destroy slavery. Yet always there was a good 
feeling for the southern people. Mr. Lincoln soon found that 
the ears abroad had been tampered with; that Mr. Buchanan's 
foreign ministers had poisoned public sentiment abroad and 
secured southern sympathy almost everywhere. He found, too, 
that the northern forts and arsenals had been robbed of arms 
and amunitions, which had been carried south; that President 
Buchanan's administration, had in many ways been an adminis- 
tration of secession and rebellion. 

All these things taught Mr. Lincoln to move with prudence, 
and to move very slowly, — to wait till the j)eople could learn all 
the facts and become thoroughly united and aroused in their 
opposition to rebellion. Many of .his friends ^^^^i^tl fault with 
him for his good nature toward the south; and for liis tardy 
and weak movements in resisting rebellion. 

At half-past four o'clock A.M., April 12, 1861, the rebel 
batteries opened on Fort Sumpter. April 15, Mr. Lincoln 



AliKAUAM LINCOLN. 401 

issued his call for seventy-five thousand men. The writer of 
this sketch was then jjastor of a church in Lawrence, Massa- 
chusetts. The sixth regiment of the Massachusetts militia had 
its headquarters there, though some of its companies were in 
towns twenty miles away. Colonel Watson, who commanded it, 
received the call for his regiment at five o'clock P.M. The next 
morning at 7:30 o'clock the whole regiment were at the depot at 
Lawrence, and took the cars for Washington. Its way to 
Washington w^as an ovation, except at Baltimore, where it was 
met by a rebel mob and four of its members killed. The first 
to fall was Sumner H. Needham, a member of the writer's con- 
gregation. His body was sent back, and early the next week 
the first funeral services occasioned by the war Avere held in his 
honor, his pastor preaching the sermon, and the other clergy- 
men of the city taking part in the services. The text was from 
Heb. xi.,4, "He being dead yet speaketh." ''He speaks," said 
his pastor, "from that scene of conflict with a silent yet terrible 
eloquence which is heard all over our great country, and which 
stirs the moral indignation of twenty millions of freemen at 
home and ten times that number abroad. That blow that broke 
in upon his brain struck upon the conscience of a nation. That 
wound has a tongue speaking with a trumpet of thunder among 
the northern hills and on the western prairies." And it did 
speak, and freemen answered in quick response to the full 
number of the call. 

The others who fell in Baltimore were Charles A. Taylor, a 
stranger, who enlisted in Boston; Luther C. Ladd and Addison 
0. Whiting, of Lowell, Massachusetts. 

The spirit of this regiment was the spirit of the north. The 
death of these men was the death of four brothers, Avliich called 
the whole family to sorrow and self-defense. 

The night before Mr. Lincoln made this call, Mr. Douglas, 
at the instance of Mr. Ashman, of Massachusetts, seconded by 
Mrs. Douglas, called upon Mr. Lincoln and assured him of his 
sympathy and cooperation. Mr. Lincoln read him the call, 
which he had just written. He approved it heartily, only he 
said it should be for two hundred thousand instead of seventy- 
26 



402 OUK PllESiDENTS. 

five tliousaud. The next morning a dispatch went with the call 
assuring the country of Mr, Douglas' approval. Thence onward 
till Mr. Douglas' death he cooperated with Mr. Lincoln. 

On the seventeenth of April Virginia seceded. North 
Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas soon followed. 

In July the battle of Bull Eun was fought, which proved a 
rout of the Union army, and was misleading to the rebels in 
suggesting to them that they had not an equal foe in the soldiers 
of the north. This mistake led ultimately to a more complete 
destruction of the south, as it continued the war so long. Over 
confidence was the weakness of the rebel cause in the beginning. 
It held them to their evil work till the south was a wreck, while 
the north was steadily growing in numbers and wealth. 

An extra session of Congress was called, and the president 
was authorized to call out half a million of soldiers and use five 
hundred millions of dollars. This meant the preservation 
of the Union. 

The first thing the north had to do was to organize and 
drill its army. It was nearly two years before this was com- 
pletely done. Many officers had to be tested. During this 
period many reverses came to the Union cause. But all the 
time Mr. Lincoln was growing in public estimation and endear- 
ing himself to the people as the preserver of that country of 
which Washington was the father. And all the time the patri- 
otism of the loyal people was developing into a great and perma- 
nent passion, which was willing to make all sacrifices for the 
national honor and cause. 

During this most trying time of the war^ France and Eng- 
land, to their great disgrace, gave sympathy and aid to the 
rebellion and the war for slavery. It was a wicked and cruel 
support of barbarity and crime, done in the greed of gain and 
the desire to see the United States broken to pieces in the hope 
that they might gather up the fragments. Slow will the people 
of the north be to forget this cruel affiliation with rebellion 
and repudiation of all just principles of inter-national honor 
and fraternity. 

Through all the earlier period of the war, Mr. Lincoln took 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN". 403 

all possible pains to express his kindly feeling to the people of 
the south, and that he had no purpose of destroying slavery if it 
could be avoided. He had taken his oath to maintain the con- 
stitution. If it could be done, he was resolved on doing it. If 
the constitution could not be preserved, then he would let that 
go and save the nation. 

Many of his friends were greatly tried that he would make 
no movement against slavery. It was quite a common feeling 
among them that it was impossible to preserve the Union and 
slavery. The old abolitionists did not think it desirable to pre' 
serve the Union with slavery in it. Many sympathized with 
them. But Mr. Lincoln had studied prayerfully his duty as a 
president sworn to obey the constitution. His conclusion was, 
that as a military necessity and a last resort, he could and must 
destroy slavery. So he said in a letter to a friend: " When early 
in the war General Fremont attempted military emancipation, 
I forbade it because I did not then think it an indispensable 
necessity. When, a little later. General Cameron, then secre- 
tary of war, suggested the arming of the blacks, I objected 
because I did not then think it an indispensable necessity. 
When, a little later. General Hunter attempted military emanci- 
pation, I again forbade it, because I did not yet think the indis- 
pensable necessity had come. When m March and May and 
July, 1862, I made earnest and successive appeals to the border 
states to favor compensated emancipation, I believed the indis- 
pensable necessity for military emancipation and arming the 
blacks would come unless averted by that measure. They 
declined the proposition; and I was, in my best judgment, 
driven to the alternative of either surrendering the Union, and 
with it the constitution, or of laying a strong hand upon the 
colored element. I chose the latter." 

When urged to emancipate the slaves, by a body of clergymen, 
he said: "Whatever shall appear to be God's will I will do." 

In the middle of the summer of 1862, when things appeared 
to be going badly enough, he concluded that he must "change 
his tactics or lose his game." So he set about preparing an 
emancipation proclamation. About the first of August, he 



404 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

called a cabinet meeting. None knew what they came for. He 
told them that he had called them to read to them a proclama- 
tion he had resolved to make, and ask them to criticise it. Mr. 
Chase "wished the language were stronger. '' Mr. Blair depre- 
cated the policy. Mr. Seward approved, but did not think this 
the opportune time, and gave his reasons. So it waited yet 
longer. Before they separated, he said in a low, solemn voice, 
"I have promised my God that I will do it." Mr. Chase, who 
was near him, asked if he understood him. He replied, "I 
made a solemn vow before God, that if General Lee should be 
driven back from Pennsylvania, I would crown the result by a 
declaration of freedom to the slaves." 

So September 23, 1862, the proclamation was issued, to take 
effect January 1, 1863. After it was done he said: "What I 
did, I did after a very full deliberation, and under a heavy and 
solemn sense of responsibility. I can only trust in God I have 
made no mistake." Two years later, he said: "As affairs have 
turned, it is the central act of my administration, and the great 
event of the nineteenth century." 

After this proclamation, the cause of the Union began to 
mend. Within a year a hundred thousand colored men were 
openly allied with the army and the cause, and over half of 
them carrying muskets. Victory became assured; it was only a 
question of time. Money and men, and ability and loyalty in 
the leaders and commanders, were now abundant. 

In due time Mr. Lincoln was re-elected, and from that time 
on the tide of sentiment and events was more and more assured 
in his behalf. The war became a succession of triumphant 
victories. At his recommendation. Congress passed an amend- 
ment to the constitution abolishing slavery in the United States. 
His great generals, Grant, Sherman and Sheridan, now had 
everything well in hand. The surrender of General Lee soon 
followed, which put an end to the great rebellion. 

But in this giddy moment of glory, when the whole loyal 
north were praising him, he Avas stealthily approached by John 
Wilkes Booth, at a theatre, where he had gone with his family, 
to forget for an hour his burdening cares, and shot in the back 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 405 

and side of his head. It was a fatal wound. He lived in a 
state of unconsciousness till morning, and at twenty-two minutes 
past seven o'clock, April 15, 1865, breathed his last. 

The nation which yesterday was jubilant with an abounding 
joy, was now in tears. Oh that terrible day! How our lips 
were struck dumb, and our hearts were palsied! Never such a 
day in America! So the rebellion ended in the martyrdom of 
the grandest soul of the nation he had saved. How he loved 
his country and kind! How he loved the people of the south 
who would not then accept his love, but have since learned that 
it was sincere, wise and noble. What blessings have come to his 
country and to humanity and especially to the redeemed south, 
by his great, honest, hearty life! 



Ihe f.RAVE OF Abraham Iincoln. 

What was mortal of the great and good martyr president 
rests in Oak Ridge cemetery, Springfield, Illinois, about two 
miles out from the city. The tomb in which his body reposes 
is in the base of the National Lincoln monument, which is one 
of the finest in this country. The base on which the obelisk 
rests is seventy-two feet six inches square, with a projection in 
front and rear for the catacomb and memorial hall, making a 
length of one hundred and nineteen feet, six inches. The height 
of the base from the terrace at the bottom, is fifteen feet and ten 
inches. Around the top of the base is a rich, strong railing. A 
finely wrought pedestal, twenty-eight feet four inches across, with 
four elegant pieces of bronze statuary at the corners, sustains 
the obelisk. The obelisk is square, eighty-two feet and six 
inches high from the base. The statue of Lincoln stands in 
front of the obelisk on a separate pedestal, and is eleven feet in 
height, and stands thirty-five feet and six inches above the ter- 
race. The whole height from the terrace to the apex of the 
obelisk is ninety-eight feet and four and a half inches. The 
statue holds in its right hand an open scroll representing the 



406 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

Proclamation of Emancipation. The whole cost of the monu- 
ment, statuary, statue and coat of arms, was two hundred and 
six thousand five hundred and fifty dollars. It is a fitting 
monument to the great emancipator. 

The tomb is in the catacomb which is in the front projection 
of the base. The body is enclosed in an air-tight lead case. 
This is in a sarcophagus; and this in a strong vault. An 
attempt was made some years ago to disturb, perhaps to steal, 
the body of the martyred president. When it was discovered, 
an end of the sarcophagus had been broken off and an opening 
made in to the lead coffin, but being discovered before any 
further damage was done, the broken place was repaired, further 
securities adopted, and greater precautions instituted, so that 
no further attempts have been made upon the security and 
sacredness of the place. 

Under the pedestal on which the statue of the president 
stands, is the simple inscription: 

l^lltJCJCrXtX. 

Around the large pedestal that sustains the obelisk, on small 
shield-like projections, are the abreviations of the several states. 
The top of the base and the platform around the pedestal of the 
obelisk is reached by two flights of steps of twenty-four steps 
each, with heavy railings and pilasters. These are on either 
side of the catecomb. It must be seen to be appreciated. 







-^^tiy^^-r^ 



ENGRAVED EJPREESSLY FOR WE AVERS " L.IV ES AMD GRAVES OF OUR PRESiDENTsT 





^^^s® 



CHAPTER XVin. 



AKDEEW JOHNSON. 

Seventeenth President of the United States. 




AKCESTRY. 

N attempting to write of the ancestry of Andrew John- 
son, we are met at once by that sadly expressive term, 
''poor whites," so common and so well understood in 
the old days of the south. Poor indeed was his father, 
Jacob Johnson, whose emj)loyments were city constable, 
sexton and porter of a bank. He lost his life in attempt- 
ing to save a man from drowning in 1S12. But this humble 
origin is no discredit to him in American society, while the fact 
that he was born at the bottom and rose by his own force to the 
top, is one of the common things that glorifies our political 
institutions. Such instances as Jackson, Johnson, Lincoln, 
Garfield, no American recurs to but with pride. In no other 
country in the world can they so often occur. Parents are often 
best known by their children, and we may reasonably infer from 
these men the qualities and powers which existed in their ances- 
try unseen. Beneath common soils there are often precious ores. 



CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 

Andrew Johnson was born in Ealeigh, North Carolina, 
December 29, 1808. His father died when he was four years 
old. His childhood was subject to the hardships of the poor and 

407 



408 OUll PRESIDENTS. 

fatherless in that section of the country. How he got up to ten 
years old his biograj)hers do not say, but we must suppose that 
such a mother as AndrcAv Johnson must have had, found a way 
to care for him. At that age he was put to service with a 
tailor by the name of Shelby. While at work in this man^s shop 
learning his trade, a neighbor who was fond of reading used to 
go in and read to the workmen from the "American Speaker." 
Andrew was an interested listener. That book became to him 
a wonder. He craved it for his own, but he knew it Avould 
reveal none of its secrets to him till he should learn to read. So 
he at once set about learning his letters, and then to spell and 
read. He became an industrious student in all his odd hours 
from work. He had an object to study for — to read that book 
for himself, and as soon as he could read, became an earnest 
reader of such books as he could get. 

When he was about sixteen years old he got into trouble by 
throwing stones at an old woman's house, and started at once 
for unknown jjarts. He found his way to Laurens Court House, 
South Carolina, where he procured work at his trade. Two 
years after he returned to Ealeigh, and learned that Mr. Shelby 
had moved twenty miles into the country. On foot he sought 
and found him. He made all due apologies for his unceremoni- 
ous departure two years before, and desired to go to work again 
for Mr. Shelby. But he demanded security for his faithfulness, 
which Andrew could not give, and so, heavy-hearted, he had to 
look the world in the face, which had no home and but little 
encouragement for him. 

In September, 1826, he went to Tennessee and took his 
mother with him. He found work at Greenville. During his 
first year there, with the courage of youth he took a Avife to 
help him enjoy his poverty. Having married, he went west to 
find a place to make his fortune. After a fruitless search of 
several months, he returned to Greenville and went to work at 
his trade. 

He was fortunate in his marriage in this, that he found a 
teacher in his wife of whom he was glad to learn. The differ- 
ence between him and most men is that they accept with ill 



ANUliEVV JOHNSON^. 409 

grace the good lessons of their wives, while he gladly and teach- 
ably learned of his really wiser and "better half." She was a 
fair scholar and taught him writing and arithmetic, and stimu- 
lated him to the acquisition of further knowledge. 

EARLY MANHOOD. 

Mr. Johnson^s studious habits soon gave him information 
and mental activity above his associates, and began to make him 
conspicuous as a leader of opinions and in conversation. He 
began to be a center around which clustered his class. He had 
a turn for politics in a local way, and organized a working- 
men's party in opposition to the aristocratic element which, in 
the mam, managed the politics in those parts. His new jiarty 
elected him an alderman. He was re-elected for two successive 
years; and the next year was elected mayor. During these 
years he was active in a debating society composed of the young 
men of the place and college. One of the students of the 
college at that time later in life described his house as being in 
the outskirts of the village, about ten feet square, Avith a tailor's 
bench in one corner, and with but little furniture. The students 
often called to see him, because he welcomed them with hearti- 
ness and entertained them with his spirited conversation. 
Probably on account of his influence with the students he was 
appointed by the court a trustee of the Eliea academy. About 
this time he was active in behalf of a new constitution for 
the state. 

In the summer of 1835 he offered himself a candidate for the 
lower house of the legislature, and took the field for his own 
election, claiming to be a democrat. At first he was coolly 
received by the leaders, but he made his canvass so intelligent 
and vigorous that he not only won his way to their confidence, 
but to an election. At ten he could not read; at twenty could 
read only; at twenty-one he married and began to learn writing 
and arithmetic; at twenty-seven he was a member of the state 
legislatjii-e, and yet earned his living all this time on the tailor's 
bench^ 



410 OUR PEESIDENTS. 



JOHN"SON" A LEGISLATOR. 

Mr. Johnson took his seat as a legislator, and very soon 
made himself consjDicuous as a resolute oj^ponent of the principal 
measure of the session, which was a plan to institute a system of 
internal improvement in the way of road making and macadam- 
izing, which was to involve the state in a debt of four millions 
of dollars. He predicted disaster to the scheme if it was 
attempted. The plan was adopted and all the disasters came, 
with but little benefit. In 1839, he was re-elected to the legisla- 
ture. In 1840, he took an active part in the canvass for Van 
Buren, making speeches in all parts of the state. He was made 
elector at large and voted for Van Buren. In 1841, he was 
elected to the State Senate, into which he introduced measures 
for a number of moderate improvements in the eastern part of 
the state. 

In 1843, he was elected to the Lower House of Congress, and 
held his place by successive re-elections for ten years. He was 
elected as a democrat, and sustained in the main, the measures 
of the democrats during that time. He at length became a slave 
holder, though he thought slavery would ultimately be abol- 
ished. Though reared in poverty, he seemed to have no strong 
repugnance to slavery, or strong convictions against it. When 
the rebellion broke out and he took the Union side, the confed- 
erates confiscated his seven or eight slaves. He had but a 
superficial view of slavery, as he had of politics generally. He 
was essentially a southern man, with southern jirinciples, till he 
declared for the Union. He had gratitude enough to realize 
what the Union had done for him, and to be faithful to it. 

In 1848, he made an elaborate argument in favor of the veto 
power. 

In 1853, he was elected governor of Tennessee; and at the 
next election re-elected. The excitement at these elections was 
great, and his life was threatened. He spoke sometimes with a 
revolver on the table and his hand on it. On one occasion he 
proposed that those who had threatened should do the shooting 
first. As nobody shot, he proceeded. 



ANDREW JOHNSON. 411 

In December, 1857, he took his seat m the Senate of the 
United States, to which he had been elected by his state legisla- 
ture. In the Senate his course was much as it had been in the 
House — democratic, southern. In the House he had made himself 
conspicuous by advocating a homestead bill giving one hundred 
and sixty acres of the public lands to actual settlers thereon. 
He took up this again in the Senate and carried it through, only 
to have it defeated by President Buchanan. In this he acted 
out of his better nature, and not in sympathy with the 
pro-slavery policy of his party. 

He fought vigorously for economy in the management of 
the national finances, and opposed the Pacific railroad scheme. 
He opjDosed the compromise measures of 1850, yet voted for 
them in the end. 

In the Charleston-Baltimore convention of 1860 he was 
proposed by the Tennessee delegation as a candidate for the 
presidency. In the contest which followed with four candidates 
he sustained Breckenridge; the extreme southern candidate. 
His associates had, in the main, been with the radical pro- 
slavery men. He was trained in their school ; bought slaves to 
be one of them; desired to nationalize slavery, and hated black 
republicanism. Such moral notions as he had were based in the 
pro-slavery code; and when the question of secession came, he 
maintained the Union, largely on the ground that the battle for 
slavery could best be fought, as he said, " under the battlements 
of the constitution." He presented strongly the ?ight of the 
Union to New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana and Florida and the 
great river courses of the west, by purchase and conquest. He 
said: " I am opposed to secession. I believe it no remedy for 
the evils complained of. Instead of acting with that division of 
my southern friends who take ground for secession, I shall take 
other grounds, toMle I try to accomplish the same end. I think 
that this battle ought to be fought, not outside, but inside, the 
Union." Being of them, and because he would not go out with 
them, the secessionists made war upon him, burned him in 
effigy, insulted him with mobs, threatened him with lynching, 
sacked his home, drove his sick wife and children into the 



412 OUR PKESIDENTS. 

streets, stole his slaves, which he called property, and turned 
his house into a receptacle for secession soldiery. But all this 
only made him more resolute for the Union, and he took the 
high ground that secession was treason. He said in the Senate, 
March 2, 1861 : " Were I the president of the United States, 
I would do as Thomas Jefferson did in 18Q6 with Aaron Burr: I 
would have them arrested and try them for treason, and if con- 
victed, by the eternal God, they should suffer the penalty of the 
law at the hands of the executioner ! Sir, treason must be 
punished. Its enormity and the extent and depth of the offense 
must be made known." In a speech at Cincinnati he said : "1 
repeat, this odious doctrine of secession should be crushed out, 
destroyed and totally annihilated. No government can stand, 
no religious, or moral, or social organization can stand, where 
this doctrine is tolerated. It is disintegration ; it is universal 
dissolution." 

MILITARY GOVERNOR. 

In February, 1862, the Union forces got possession of the 
middle and western portion of Tennessee, and President Lincoln 
appointed Mr. Johnson military governor of the state. He had 
twice before been civil governor of the state, now he was governor 
by a northern appointment, the most offensive that could be, to 
the secession portion of the south. A great deal was said about 
a "solid south," but probably there never was a solid south. 
Many Avere always Union people, and were taken out against 
their wills. No doubt many loyal Tennesseeans welcomed their 
old governor, as a representative of the Union. He held a 
difficult post of duty with great resolution, often terribly tried 
by halting, and half Union men and fierce rebels. His head- 
quarters Avere at Nashville, which was for a considerable time 
under seige and doubtful of the result. He had difficulties with 
the civil authorities, some of whom he had to displace and put 
in others; difficulties with Union generals, who seemed to him 
half-hearted in their work; difficulties Avith the rebel and half 
Union citizens: but they all tended to carry him in symi)athy 
and opinion nearer to Mr. Lincoln, and separate him more and 



ANDREW Johnson. 413 

more from his old opinions and life. Slavery began to look like 
an abominable thing. 

In the Autumn of 18G3, Mr. Johnson visited Washington to 
consult with the president about re-establishing a civil govern- 
ment in Tennessee. The visit brought him nearer to Mr. Lin- 
coln and his views. It soon became apparent to him that the 
active Union and the republican party were identical, and so far 
as the broken Union was to be restored it must be done by the 
party in power. 

His prompt and decisive treatment of the difficulties in his 
state won him the admiration of the loyal north, and before 
Mr. Lincoln's first term closed he felt himself in close sympathy 
with the adminstration. 

ME. JOHNSON VICE-PEESIDENT. 

The republican convention of 1864, met in Baltimore, 
June 6, to nominate a president and vice-president. Mr. Lincoln 
was renominated without a thought of another, with Andrew 
Johnson for his vice-president. The sympathy which the 
loyal north felt for southern Unionists had much to do with 
this. The brave stand Mr. Johnson took for the Union and for 
the return of his state was regarded with great favor. His 
speeches, electric with patriotism, and stalwart with solid 
argument, were read all over the north with enthusiasm. His 
orders as military governor, his reorganization of a government 
in Tennessee, had prepared the way for his nomination. His 
past democracy was forgotten. By this time the Union cause 
was nobly sustained by multitudes of northern democrats who 
welcomed this nomination. 

Mr. Johnson welcomed at once the inevitable result of the 
war, the death of slavery. He foresaw it, and all the terrible 
consequences of the war to the south and tried to stay it, but 
could not. When he found that slavery was ended he was glad, 
though he sorrowed over the great cost of its death. 

When the news of Mr. Johnson's nomination reached Nash- 
ville, a great mass meeting was called to ratify the nomination, 
and Mr. Johnson was invited to address it. The speech he then 



414 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

made was one of the great speeches of that great period. It was 
a powerful presentation of the underlying principles of our 
government, the history of the government, the history of the 
rebellion, beginning in the early days of the republic, and its 
failure, and the permanent prospect for our institutions with 
slavery, their great antagonistic principle, out of the way. The 
enthusiasm among the people, white and black, was unbounded. 
Probably nothing surpassed it anywhere in the country. It was 
much like Patrick Henry's great sjDeeches in the early days of 
the republic, in its effects. The poor colored people, when he 
said, ''I, Andrew Johnson, do hereby proclaim freedom, full, 
broad and unconditional, to every man in Tennessee," gathered 
around him in a wild frenzy of joy, and called him their Moses. 
The reports of this great i^eech went through the country like 
an electric shock, and thrilled the loyal people. It gave a great 
impetus to the election and great expectations of him. It was 
the transcendent moment of his life. He was governor of the 
state which he had just restored to the Union; had just been 
nominated to the vice-presidency ; three thousand peojile had 
gathered to do him honor and were electrified by his magnificent 
utterances, and now the grateful slaves of the state looked up to 
him as their deliverer. 

The canvass proceeded; he was triumphantly elected, with 
his great leader — the savior of his country, and was inaugurated 
the fourth of March, 1865. The rebellion was rapidly going to 
pieces. General Sherman had made his great march to the sea; 
the Mississippi valley had been redeemed; General Grant was 
soon in Richmond; Petersburg was in his hands; and his army 
was in hot pursuit of General Lee. April 3, there was a great 
meeting m Washington to rejoice over the fall of Richmond and 
Petersburg; April 9, General Lee sarrendered to General Grant; 
April 14, President Lincoln was shot, and died the next morning. 

MR. JOHNSON PRESIDENT. 

Immediately after the death of the president, the attorney- 
general, Honorable James Speed, addressed a note to Vice- 



ANDREW JOHNSOK". 415 

President Johnson, informing him of the president's death and 
that the presidency now devolved upon him, signed by the 
members of the cabinet, except Mr. Seward, whose life had been 
attempted. At ten o'clock, two hours and a half after the death 
of the president. Chief Justice Chase administered to Mr. 
Johnson the oath of office. 

Soon after, he was publicly inaugurated in the Senate 
chamber under circumstances which cast a still deeper sorrow 
over the afflicted country. He was just recovering from a fit of 
sickness, and it was feared he would be unable to go through 
the ceremonies of inauguration. To brace himself for the 
•occasion he took intoxicating stimulants, and was so visibly 
under their influence as to shock all who were present, and bring 
a deeper grief to the country. 

On the seventeenth he made a speech so resolute against 
rebellion, so loyal and promising, as to lead the people to hope 
for a continuance of a sound administration. But in a few days 
his actions were so different from what the people had been led 
to expect as to awaken distrust of his judgment or his loyalty. 
Almost the entire party which elected him soon lost confidence 
in him. 

On May 1, he appointed a military commission for the trial 
of those concerned in the assassination of the ]3resident, and 
offered a hundred thousand dollars for the arrest of Jefferson 
Davis, and smaller sums for the arrest of others on the ground 
of complicity with the crime. May 9, he promulgated a ,set of 
rules for trade with the south, and on the twenty- fourth he 
removed all restrictions. On the ninth of May an order was 
issued for the restoration of federal relations with Virginia, On 
the twenty-ninth of May two proclamations were made, one estab- 
lishing a provisional government in South Carolina, and the 
other offering a general amnesty to all persons who had been in 
rebellion, on condition of taking an oath of allegiance, excepting 
fourteen specified classes who might obtain pardon on personal 
application to the president. The president appointed provis- 
ional governments for the other returning states in rapid 
succession. 



416 OUR PRESIDfiNTS. 

When Congress assembled in December there was soon 
found to be a determined opposition in that body to the presi- 
dent's reconstruction measures. In the judgment of Congress 
the returning rebels should make some proper guarantees of 
good faith to the government and provisions for the rights of 
the colored people now made free. A joint committee of fifteen 
was appointed, to which were referred all questions concerning 
the recognition of returning states. Congress passed the "civil 
rights bill" and one for the extension of the freedmau's bureau, 
both of which were vetoed by the president and passed over his 
head. Early in 1866 the president publicly denounced Congress 
as in another rebellion. In June, a call for a convention to 
meet in Philadelphia, was issued, as it turned out, to try to 
organize a president's party; but nothing came of it. The 
members of the president's cabinet, one by one, resigned, except 
Edwin M. Stanton, whom the president sought to remove, bnt 
failed. The president, with several friends, went to Chigago in 
August to assist in laying the foundation of a monument to 
Stephen A. Douglas. He made speeches on the way of a strange 
and almost maudlin character, which many regarded as coming 
from an intoxicated brain. This trip he called ''swinging 
round the circle." It was a great humiliation to a country so 
sensitive to the honor of its president. 

In June, Congress resolved that no state should return with- 
out ratifying the fourteenth amendment. In succeeding sessions 
it required the elective franchise to be granted to persons in the 
territories without respect to color, and in the District of 
Columbia. All these and similar measures met the resolute 
opposition of President Johnson. They were passed over his 
vetos. He sought steadily to defeat the plans of Congress, and 
Congress sought to repress the influence and action of the 
president, regarding them as in sympathy with the pro-slavery 
south. Congress had passed a "tenure of office act," which 
required the approval of the Senate to dismiss or appoint federal 
officers. The president dismissed Mr. Stanton and appointed 
General Grant in his place as secretary of war, in tlie face of 
this Congressional requirement. Congress refused to a])iirovo 



AKDKEW JOHKSOiq-. 417 

his action. The president again sought his removal and 
appointed another man. Congress passed a resolution declaring 
that "the president had no poAverto remove the secretary of war 
and appoint another person to perform the duties of that office." 
The next day the House of Eepresentatives resolved that the 
president be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors. 
The impeachment movement, though carried by a large majority, 
failed for lack of the requisite two thirds. 

At the next democratic national convention, Mr. Johnson 
was one of the candidates and received sixty-five votes on the 
first ballot. 

Untoward and unhappy was the closing part of Mr. Johnson's 
life. As soon as the rebellion was conquered, he seemed to go 
back to his old sympathy with the slaveholders and the south, 
and to try to use the power of his high ofiice in their behalf. 
The evil habit of the use of intoxicating drinks disturbed the 
poise of his judgement, and degraded his moral sense. He 
brought disgrace, at last, upon his country, after having won its 
highest honors. As seen to-day, it is pretty clear that he was 
over-estimated and over-trusted by the generosity of the loyal 
people. Having fine, natural powers, his lack of early education 
and life-long affiliation with slavery, made him unequal to the 
trying ordeal of the position he was called to occupy. 

He died in 1875, sixty-seven years of age. 



fcE iiRAVE OF Andrew Iohnson. 

The grave of President Johnson, is on a beautiful cone- 
shaped eminence, one half mile southwest of Greenville, Ten- 
nessee, where he had so long lived and been so much honored by 
the people. He selected the place for its fine outlook over the 
town and surrounding country. "From piers on each side of 
the graves where lie, side by side, the president and his wife, 
who survived him less than six months, springs a granite arch 
of thirteen stones, beneath which are the graves, covered with 
37 



418 OUE PEESIDENTS. 

white pebbles." Upon this arch rests the monument. On the 
marble plinth four feet and a half square, and three feet and a 
half high, is this inscription: 

B:'VVSFVWWW 9-rvw vww w^-v^ 

> \ 

t ^ndxcxvt %o\xvison, < 

* Se\^nteenth President, U. S. A. 5 

i i 

S> Born December 29, 1808. < 

Died July 31, 1875. * 

" His faith in the people never waTered." 




His wife's name, the dates of her birth and death, and ''In 
memory of father and mother," are inscribed below. The 
monument was erected by their three surviving children. On 
the die which is three feet and a half square, and three feet and 
two inches high, are carved a scroll of the constitution, without 
the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments, and an open bible on 
which rests a hand as in the act of taking an oath. From this 
die rises a tapering shaft of marble, thirteen feet high and two 
feet ten inches square at the base. The top is hung with the 
American flag and surmounted by an eagle with its wings half 
spread. 

The graves of their two sons, Charles, a surgeon, killed by the 
.fall of his horse at Nashville, in 18G3; and Eobert, colonel of a 
Tennessee regiment, who died in 1869, are a few feet from the 
graves of their parents. 

The scenery as witnessed from this place is singularly pictur- 
esque, and diversified. It is a fitting place to hold the ashes of 
a great nation's president. 




ENGHAVEO EXPREE5S.LY FOR WE AVE.R S LIV E S Alio GRAVES OF OUR PR ESI 




CHAPTER XIX. 




ULYSSES a GEANT. 

Eighteenth President op the United States. 

T is not grea|; talents alone, nor favoring circumstances, 
which make men distinguished, but usually a com- 
bination of both. Many great minds pass through life 
obscurity ; much inestimable worth is known only 
a few. 

"Full many a flower is born to blush unseen 
And waste its sweetness on the desert au\" 



There are vast amounts of unknown talent and unappreci- 
ated worth in all human society. In the dull mediocrity of 
common life there is much human gold, and not a few Jewels 
of rarest water. Most men are under-valued. Most men 
under-value themselves. If men everywhere knew what they 
could be and do, and would put forth their best efforts con- 
stantly, we should live in the society of the noble and great. 
Nothing is so much against us as our disheartening estimate 
of ourselves. 

The common saying that circumstances make men is only 
half true. Men can be great, in truth, with circumstances 
against them ; and men can be distinguished by the favor of 
fortunate circumstances when they are not great. 

The subject of this sketch must be classed among those who 
have become distinguished above their real merits by the 

419 



420 OUR PRESIDEJSTTS. 

circumstances which made the ladder on which they went up 
to fame. 

Had it not been for the war of the rebellion, there is no 
probability that he would have attained the rank of an average 
man. His past life for several years, his apparent business 
incompetency, and his habits, indicated less than an average 
success in life. He was wasting rather than augmenting 
his power. 

But the opening of the war opened a career to him which 
put him where he waked up to honor, to duty and to a great 
life. All credit is due him for using nobly his opportunity. 
His country and kind have reaped the benefit of it. 

ANCESTRY, BIRTH AKD BOYHOOD. 

The biographers of President Grant have generally said he 
was of Scotch descent. But Kichard A. Wheeler, of Connecti- 
cut, claims to have traced his lineage directly to the west of 
England through the company of immigrants who came to 
Plymouth colony in 1630. Among those who came that year 
were Matthew and Priscilla Grant, who were then twenty-nine 
years old. ''The west country people," as they were called in 
England, who came in that company, settled four miles from 
Boston, at Matapan, which is now Dorchester. Four years 
later several of these settlers went to the Connecticut valley, 
and among them was Matthew Grant, who had lost his wife and 
been left with four children. They settled at Winsdor, and 
much is said in the early records of the place of Matthew Grant 
as one of the most pious, honest and active citizens. His second 
son was Noah ; and he had a son Noah who was active in the 
French and English war, in which George Washington began 
his career. During the war his wife died, leaving him two sons, 
Solomon and Peter. After a little while, with others, he went 
west to Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, on the Monon- 
gahela river. Two years after, he married Eachel Kelly, a 
widow, by whom he had seven children. The fourth child by 
this marriage was Jesse Root Grant, born January 23,- 1794. 



ULYSSES S. GKANT. 421 

April, 1799, Noah Grant and liis family moved down the river 
and settled in Columbiana county, Ohio. He made but a short 
stay, but went to the Western Eeserve, where many Connecti- 
cut people were settling. Jesse was ten years old. Soon after, 
his mother died. They settled in Portage county, near Deer- 
field. When Jesse* was fourteen he went to Youngstown, 
Trumbull county, and lived with Judge Todd. Two years after, 
he returned to Deerfield, where he remained two years to work with 
a tanner and learn the trade. At eighteen he was ai^prenticed 
to a half-brother in Maysville, Kentucky. In 18.15 Jesse, now 
twenty-one, returned to Deerfield and set up tanning business 
for himself in a small way. Two years later he went to Ravenna 
and prospered in business; but the fever and ague drove him to 
Maysville. He regained his health; settled in Point Pleasant, 
in Ohio, on the river; married Hannah SimjDson on the twenty- 
fourth of June, 1821, and on the twenty-seventh of April, 1822, 
their first baby, Ulysses, came into their hands. He was named 
Hiram Ulysses. 

Ten months after Ulysses was born the family moved to 
Georgetown, ten miles back from the river. Ulysses was a quiet, 
but not a diffident boy; was fond of sport, hunting and horses. 
When twelve years old he began to work with horses as a team- 
ster in hauling lumber, logs, stone, etc., and soon showed 
unusual skill, for one so young. Hand work he disliked, but 
give him a team and he never wearied. He often took loads to 
Cincinnati, fifty miles away. When asked, once, "why his 
horses never got stalled," he replied instantly, "Because I never 
get stalled myself." Teaming, driving, working with horses 
was his favorite employment. He was shy of the tannery, but 
always glad to be with the team. 

He went to school after he was four years old, summer and 
winter, and learned and recited fluently little pieces; was always 
ready with: "You^d scarce expect one of my age to speak in 
public on the stage," when his father asked for it. 

After eleven he was too useful with a team to be spared for 
school, except three months in the winter. So his love of 
horses spoiled his early education. He was a sober, thoughtful 



422 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

boy, ijeaceful, helpful, showing no special talent for anything 
but teaming. 

In school he was a little dull and slow, except in arithmetic, 
for which he showed more fondness. 

He had two brothers and three sisters. His mother is always 
spoken of as a thoughtful, modest, sensitive woman, of much 
quiet worth, from whom he inherited tlie best of his character- 
istics. His father was a brusque, talkatiye, self-willed man, 
oj)inionated, dogmatic, at home with the coarser side of the 
world, not over-scrupulous, but self-urgent, pushing his own 
claims, because they seemed to him the all-important matters. 

The family were brought up in the Methodist church, the 
mother of Ulysses being a devout and conscientious member. 
Some say his father was a member also. The father was a 
heavy, broad-shouldered, thick-necked man, with head bent 
forward. The dominance of the material over the mental in 
his make-up was strong. Ulysses inherited from him bodily form 
and force, self-will and material supremacy. The quiet, retiring 
thoughtful element of his mother, gave him a cool, modest self- 
poise, which was always one of the sources of his strength 
and success. In Ulysses there was a combination of the father 
and mother, but the mother prevailed. He grew up to a plain, 
chubby, round-faced country youth of seventeen, giving to 
those who knew him not the slightest glimpse of any ability to 
be a great leader or in any way a marked man. His character- 
istics as then known to his neighbors would have led them to 
expect from him a fair livery-stable man, rather than a military 
hero, or a president of the republic. 

There was a military vein in the Grant family. One of the 
ancestors had been in the French and English war. He had 
often fired the younger members with his war stories. Ulysses 
had always evinced great interest in soldiers, trainings and 
musters. He hated the tannery, and when his father talked of 
his going to work in it, he spoke out his repugnance. "Well, 
what do you want to do?" the father asked. "1 should like to 
be a farmer, or a river trader, or have an education," the boy 
replied. 



ULYSSES S. GRANT. 433 

A young man of his acquaintance had, not long before, gone 
to West Point. Jesse Grant had much admired some of the 
army men that he had known something of as military men. 
He was a democrat of the real^ Jacksonian strijDe. It occurred to 
him to ask Ulysses how he would like to go to West Point. 
"First rate," was his prompt reply. Jesse knew the congress- 
man from his district, and he at once applied for an appoint- 
ment for Ulysses. The member had no vacancy in his district, 
but a neighbor member had, and so it was soon arranged that 
Jesse Grant's son should have the appointment. It was a quick, 
new turn of affairs in the Grant family. This silent, calm, 
oldest boy, that looked so little like a soldier, or anything very 
promising, to other eyes than his family's, must now be got 
ready for his cadet ai^pointment at West Point. Tliere was a 
buzz in the neighborhood. Some wise ones shook their heads. 
Everybody wondered. Of all the youth in the county, this was 
the last one the Georgetown people would have thought of for 
an officer to lead our armies. "Nothing against him;" but, 
then, "nothing of him," they thought. 

Here comes in the glory of our institutions. This is the 
country that believes in the plain common sense and common 
talent of the people. Ulysses S. Grant could not have been the 
great man he is in any other country. The republic makes 
common men great when greatness is needed. 

GRANT A CADET. 

The member of Congress who made the application for 
Ulysses, got the impression that his nai^ie was Ulysses Simpson 
Grant, because he knew one of the boy's names was Simpson, 
and so the name went upon the books at West Point in that 
form, and he never succeeded in getting it changed. 

Before going, he took a short course of special study, by the 
aid of which he passed a fair examination. He went through 
his course at West Point respectably ; averaging fair in his reci- 
tations ; having a good record in deportment ; awakening no 
suspicion of greatness to come. He was noted for calmness, 
fairness, for speaking without exaggeration, for being just what 



424 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

he seemed. He could master any studies easily, yet studied no 
more than was necessary for fair standing. He was not an 
ambitious scholar ; had no craving for knowledge ; yet could 
easily do much more than he did. In the final result of his 
course, he stood twenty-first in a class of thirty-five. But in one 
thing he surpassed all the cadets of all the classes there during 
his stay. That was in horsemanship. He was a graceful and 
skillful rider, and a master of the horses he rode. One horse, 
by the name of York, a tall, coarsely-made, but powerful and 
spirited animal, which few could ride at all, was his favorite 
horse. At the final examination, before the board of examiners 
and the great company of visitors, he appeared on York and 
made the celebrated leap, which stands recorded, " Grant's leap 
on York," six feet and some two or three inches, over a pole, 
the highest leap that had ever been made at the academy. 
He graduated June 31, 1843. 

LIEUTEISTANT GRANT. 

Mr. Grant was breveted at once Second-lieutenant Grant in 
the fourth infantry, then located at Jefferson barracks, near St. 
Louis. After the ninety days furlough given the cadets after 
their graduation, during which he visited his friends in Ohio, 
he repaired to his regiment. "With little to do, and without 
studious habits, he must find some way to employ his time. 
The near city afforded much opportunity; but the home of his 
classmate's father. Colonel Frederick Dent, at Gravois creek, 
ten miles southwest of the city, offered special attractions. 
Julia Dent, three years younger than himself, with a slave 
waiter just her own age, so that she had nothing to do but make 
herself agreeable, made it exceedingly pleasant at her home for 
the young lieutenant. It soon became an apparent necessity for 
him to spend much time with the Dents. 

Early in May, 1844, Lieutenant Grant visited his home in 
Ohio. But he had hardly got away from his barracks when his 
regiment received orders to start for Eed river, to render assist- 
ance in the war Avith Mexico, just coming on. An order for 
him to meet his regiment at its place of destination followed 



ULYSSES S. GRAXT. 425 

him, and cut his visit short. The regiment remained there a 
year. In June, 1845, it moved to a j)oiut four miles below New 
Orleans, near the old Jackson battle ground. There it remained 
till August, when it went forward to Corpus Christi, Texas. In 
October Grant was made regular second-lieutenant. In March, 
1846, the force at Corpus Christi was ordered to move forward 
to the Eio Grande. On the second of May it was in the battle 
of Palo Alto (high timber), near the Eio Grande, under General 
Taylor. The next day the battle of Resaca de la Palma (grove 
of palms) was fought. In both of these battles Grant's regi- 
ment was in active work. Nine days after. General Taylor 
with his force crossed the Rio Grande and took possession of 
Matamoras. 

Grant's regiment moved on with the army and fought in the 
battle of Monterey. It was here where Grant did the fierce 
riding through shot and shell for ammunition. He had been 
made quartermaster; and losing several officers, he was made 
adjutant. Grant's regiment was in the battles of Buena Vista 
and Puebla. It led in the skirmishes of Contreras and San 
Antonio and in the battle of Cherubusco. At Chepultepec he 
was so conspicuous that he was breveted, then promoted to a 
first-lieutenancy. The army moved upon the city of Mexico and 
the next morning it surrendered and the war was over. It cost 
us twenty-five thousand men. It was some months before the 
army returned, but as soon as possible our lieutenant visited 
Miss Dent and his parents in Ohio. 

grant's marriage. 

On the twenty-second of August, 1848, at the Dent residence 
on Fourth street, St. Louis, Lieutenant Ulysses S. Grant and 
Miss Julia B. Dent, were married. After the visitings and 
pleasurings of such occasions were over, they went to the head 
quarters of his regiment, at Detroit. He was soon ordered to 
Sackett's Harbor, New York, where he and his wife spent the 
winter, returning to Detroit in the spring, and setting up house- 
keeping in such a moderate way as he was able. 

In 1850, they broke up housekeeping and Mrs. Grant went to 



426 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

her father. The next season the regiment was ordered to 
Sackett's Harbor, and the next to California. Here he was 
promoted to a captaincy, giving up the quarter-master's duties, 
which he had performed for some years. At Fort Humboldt, 
two hundred and forty miles north of San Francisco, where he 
was stationed, he found little to occupy his mind. His family 
was in St. Louis. He was lonely, and little interested in any- 
thing about him, and in this low state of mind he took to drink 
to drown his melancholy moods. At Sackett's Harbor he was a 
member of the Sons of Temperance and the Odd Fellows, No 
fraternities of this kind were here; no help from wife and 
children, for he now had two children, cheered him; no society 
guarded him. This lonely, far-off fort, offered the only enemy 
he did not resist Avith force and success. On this battlefield he 
was beaten. It was the misfortune of his life. It was an evil 
habit sooner taken on than put off. It followed him wherever 
he went and for some years produced failure in whatever he 
attempted, and put him among a class of associates and into 
places that did not belong to him, 

Eumor came to his ears that he was likely to be displaced, or 
reprimanded if he did not reform; and so he at once sent in his 
resignation, remarking to a friend: "Whoever hears of me in 
ten years will hear of a well-to-do old Missouri farmer." He 
started at once for New York, and reaching Governors Island, 
forlorn and penniless; some brother officers gave him money and 
sympathy, both of which were equally needed now in his ill- 
fortune. He went to Sackett^s Harbor to find the former sutler 
of his regiment, to whom, in the days of better fortune, he had 
lent sixteen hundred dollars, whom he found, but without the 
disposition, or the money to pay him. He returned to New 
York again, penniless and crest-fallen. Evil days had come upon 
him. He was out of the army, without employment, in disgrace 
and destitution. Like other prodigals, he thought of his father, 
and wrote to him. In answer, his brother Simpson came to his 
relief with the old home love, and money to take him to his 
wife and children, at her father's in St. Louis. After a visit 
there he went with his family to his father's, now at Covington, 



ULYSSES S. GKANT. 427 

Kentucky, where he remained for several months. He was 
now thirty-two years old and in this sad plight — a dependent 
on his and his wife's parents in consequence of his drunken 
habits. 

CAPTAIISr GEANT A FARMEE. 

There seemed nothing else to be done but to go to "White- 
haven, at Gravois (gravel) creek, ten miles out the Gravois road 
at St. Louis, and take up farming on sixty acres of the old Dent 
farm, which her father had given to Mrs. Grant. So, to her 
old birthplace they went, and put up a log cabin, and set up for 
farmers. He named the place "Hardscrabble," The writer of 
this sketch lived five years three miles out on the Gravios road, 
and often heard of " Hardscrabble " farther out, but little 
thought of its owner as the future president of the republic. 
Mrs. Grant had three or four slaves, but her husband knew little 
how to work them to advantage. Hauling wood to St. Louis, 
was an important item in the business of the new farmer. This 
seemed like his boyhood's employment returned under new 
circumstances. He drove a good team; but his evil habit, if the 
reports of the neighbors are reliable, drove him sometimes on his 
return from the city. Though it seems that he fought against 
this evil habit, refusing to drink with army friends, as some of 
them report. It was the old story, a hard fight and often 
worsted. 

GEANT A REAL ESTATE AGENT. 

January 1, 1859, Captain Grant entered into partnership 
with Harry Boggs, who had married a niece of the Dent family. 
He rented Hardscrabble the next spring and hired a house in 
the city. He then sold his farm and bought in the city, but he 
found the scrabble quite as hard in the city as on the farm. In 
less than a year the firm dissolved. He then obtained a tempo- 
rary position in the custom house, but in a month the collector 
died, and he was out again. Nothing opening, and having four 
children to care for, he went again to his father. His father 
had set up Ulysses' two brothers, Simpson and Orvill, in the 
tanning business, in Galena, Illinois. He referred the case of 



428 OUR PRESIDEISTTS. 

Ulysses to them, and they proposed to give him employment 
at six hundred dollars a year; so, in March, 1860, he and his 
family went to Galena. 

GEAlStT A CLERK IJST GALENA. 

He set up housekeeping in a prudent way. His clerkship 
was a general one. He had not yet developed the business 
faculty. He was better at telling stories than making bargains. 
His income did not meet his expenses. Hardscrabble had come 
with him. His brothers raised his salary to eight hundred 
dollars. With this he did better, and had begun to be more 
hopeful of a fair living. His father had got reasonably wealthy; 
the brothers had a good start; he hoped for a partnership soon. 

THE OPENING REBELLION. 

The presidential campaign of 1860 came on. Grant had 
never voted but once ; that was against Fremont, and for 
Buchanan. He was ashamed of Buchanan. He had been a 
democrat in a quiet way, though his father and brothers had 
become enthusiastic republicans. He heard Douglas, and was 
dissatisfied with him. He was not a voter in Illinois, though he 
had began to feel much sympathy for the republicans, and when 
Lincoln was elected joined with his brothers in a celebration at 
their store. 

When the war broke out he presided at the first meeting to 
raise a company of soldiers, yet another man was made captain. 
A neighbor took Elihu B. Washburne, member of Congress from 
that district, in to see Captain Grant. He invited him to go to 
Springfield with him in a few days. After much delay and con- 
fusion Governor Yates took him into his office to do the military 
part of the business. He soon brought order out of confusion. 
He was self-distrusting, and asked for no position, yet he wanted 
one. One of the clerks from the Galena store was one day in 
the Governor's office, and he asked: "What kind of a man is 
this Captain Grant; he seems anxious to serve, though reluctant 
to take any high ^losition." The clerk replied: ''The way to 
deal with him is to ask no questions, but order him, and he will 



ULYSSES S. GRANT. 429 

obey." Just then a regiment from Decatur was disorderly and 
out with its colonel. The governor appointed Grant its colonel 
and ordered him at once to the command. Out of the confu- 
sion he soon brought order. In a few days G-rant and his regi- 
ment were ordered to Missouri. He marched his regiment 
across the country for discipline. 

In July Congress met. A delegation met to arrange army 
matters. E. B. Washburne urged Grant for a brigadier. Among 
some forty candidates he was the only one who received every 
vote. 

BRIGADIER-GENERAL GRANT. 

Colonel Grant at once accepted the new position, and soon 
was in southern Missouri, holding in check the armed and 
unarmed rebels. Learning of rebels centering at Paducah, 
Kentucky, he proceeded, without orders, to possess the town 
and capture a great amount of military stores. He was thus 
soon in the heart of the enemy's country and in possession of 
this strategic point on the Ohio, and at the mouth of the Ten- 
nessee river. He soon had a staff of intelligent and patriotic 
men. 

He was restive for action, and after too much Avaiting he 
received orders from Fremont to head off the rebels at Colum- 
bus, below Cairo, from reinforcing Price in Missouri. At once, 
he started a division down the west side of the Mississippi to 
Belmont, opposite Columbus, one down the east side in the rear 
of Columbus, and went himself down the river with three 
thousand men. At Belmont he had a sharp and victorious fight 
with the rebel detachment there, and returned to Cairo. 

Here much delay occurred. Fremont was removed and 
Halleck put in his place, and army movements rested for a time. 
Sixty-five miles up the Tennessee was the rebel Fort Henry, and 
a few miles southeast on the Cumberland, Fort Donelson. 
Grant was anxious to capture these forts. Halleck put him off, 
and even censured him for interference. On the first of Feb- 
ruary, 1862, Grant received permission to proceed against Fort 
Henry. Commodore Foote was nearly ready, and they were 



430 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

soon off. The land forces left the boats three miles below the 
fort, to attack in the rear. The gun-boats moved up to within 
good firing distance, and ojoened upon the fort, which surren- 
dered in an hour and a quarter, before the land forces could get 
into position on account of the mud. 

The next move was to be on Fort Donelson, twelve miles 
across the country. Foote went round with his boats. Heavy 
rains, flooding the country, kept Grant back a few days, but he 
moved as soon as possible and stretched his line around the fort 
from the river above to the river below. Foote's boats came up 
but could do but little, the batteries of the fort were so high. 
Grant opened all around upon the rear works of the fort. The 
fight was a severe one, but the rebels surrendered the second 
morning. There were about twenty thousand soldiers on each 
side, the rebels thoroughly entrenched, and yet they were 
fought out of their entrenchments and forced to surrender. 

These were two great victories, early gained. They opened 
the way into the very heart of the rebel territory. These move- 
ments of Grant, the only ones that had hurt the rebels much, 
made him famous. 

But General Grant pushed forward into the rebellious 
regions, up the Tennessee river into the south part of the state 
of Tennessee, and had different parts of his army at Savannah, 
Shiloh and Pittsburg Landing, places only a few miles apart. 
The rebel generals, thinking to dash unexj)ectedly upon one of 
his divisions at a time, and destroy them by piece meal, made a 
forced march and attacked him at Shiloh. It was a fierce 
attack and a desperate battle, lasting all day Sunday, the rebels 
slowly gaining ground all day. In the night Grant's expected 
reinforcements arrived, and he opened the battle early, to 
become master of the field. Hardly any one battle did the 
rebels more harm. The battle was fought on the sixth and 
seventh of April, Sunday and Monday. So great was the 
rejoicing over this victory, won by some forty thousand of our 
soldiers, that President Lincoln appointed a day of thanks- 
giving. 

But it was not without trial to General Grant. He was winning 



ULYSSES S. GRAKT. 431 

victory after victory. Some of tlie less fortunate generals were 
envious. General Halleck, his division commander, censured 
him for fighting without orders, and came into the field and 
took the command himself. Some accused him of being drunk,, 
and slaughtering his men. This accusation often came up 
against him during the war, not because there was any truth in 
it, but because he had for a time, before the war, been subject 
to the drinking habit. 

Halleck was slow, timid, halting ; and the army did little 
else than use the spade for many weeks ; but slowly he came to 
see that Grant was a winning officer, and gave him the command 
of West Tennessee. During the autumn he took Memphis, 
Jackson, La Grange, luka, and the regions about them. No 
one can read the story of that campaign without seeing that 
Halleck^s jealousy of Grant put a stop to the victorious move- 
ments of our army in Tennessee. 

But now Grant had his mind on Vicksburg, as the key to the 
Mississi2)pi and the southwest. Early in 1863, he had the com- 
mand of fifty thousand men, and all needful supplies. This 
movement upon Vicksburg was a great campaign, which many 
pages cannot adequately describe. It was attended with immense 
difficulties, which cannot be comprehended without a full geo- 
graphical knowledge of the country around it. After many 
attempts to get below Vicksburg, on the west and east, it was 
at last determined to run the batteries, with gunboats, steamers, 
and flatboats, and march the army down on the west side of 
the river, recross to the east side, and fight the way back in the 
rear of Vicksburg on the east. In tAventy days he marched two 
hundred miles, fought five battles, took ninety guns, and cap- 
tured six thousand of the enemy, killing and wounding many 
more. And all this was done to get into position to fight 
Pemberton and his army in Vicksburg. Many of his best officers, 
and even Sherman, had no confidence in the success of the move- 
ment ; but, when accomplished, all could see that it not only 
destroyed the army in Vicksburg, and took that stronghold, but 
conquered the supporting armies behind it, and opened all that 
region of country to the Union cause. The whole southwest 



432 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

was taken by this grand movement. On the fourth day of July, 
1863, General Pemberton marched out, and gave his arms and 
the i^lace to General Grant. 

No words can tell the joy it gave the country. Henceforth, 
the complete re-establishment of the Union was only a question 
of time. After this, there were none to question the great mili- 
tary ability of General Grant, and his generous and loyal spirit. 
His two years of successes, without a failure, against trained 
generals of great ability, and as brave soldiers as ever went forth 
to war, put his name among the great commanders of the world. 
Whatever criticism may be made of him as a civilian, as a soldier 
he must be given a high rank. 

The president, through the secretary of war, now consolidated 
the three western divisions of the army under General Grant, 
with his headquarters in the field. Chattanooga was the point 
he fixed on at once as his center of operation, and telegraphed 
to General Thomas to hold it. He telegraphed to Sherman, to 
Burnside, to Hooker, to reach Chattanooga with their armies as 
soon as possible. The rebels believed their position on Lookout 
Mountain impregnable. Jefferson Davis himself had visited it, 
and made a speech to the rebel army, there made secure. 

All things being ready, on the twenty-third of November the 
battle opened. It lasted three days, and brought another great 
victory. Nothing more brilliant and satisfactory had yet been 
done. Grant said of it : "I presume a battle never took place 
on so large a scale where so much of it could be seen, or where 
every move proved so successful." President Lincoln thanked 
the commanding general and the whole army, and appointed a 
national thanksgiving. Halleck pronounced it "the most 
remarkable battle of history." The force of Grant was about 
sixty thousand; that of the rebel General Bragg about forty-five 
thousand, on chosen ground and in entrenchments and rifle-pits. 

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT. 

Before Washington's death, when a war with France was 
anticipated, a new office was created for Washington, which 



ULYSSES S. GRANT. 433 

would give him the command of all the armies without going 
into the field unless he chose. In the last days of General 
Scott it was revived again. After General Grant's remarkable 
series of successes without a failure, and his wisdom and 
modesty in his victories, the question of reviving the office was 
introduced into Congress. 

Doolittle said : " General Grant has won seventeen battles, 
captured one hundred thousand prisoners, taken five hundred 
pieces of artillery and innumerable thousands of small arms on 
all these fields. He has organized victory from the beginning, 
and I want him in a position where he can organize final 
victory and bring it to our armies, and put an end to this 
rebellion." 

Wilson added that "he had taken more prisoners and more 
cannon than ever Washington or Scott saw on all their battle- 
fields." 

A bill was passed reviving the office, and President Lincoln, 
who all along had held fast to Grant as the kind of man to lead 
our armies, appointed him to the office. This was March 9, 1864. 

He immediately visited the army of the Potomac, which had 
so long exhibited a masterly inactivity. He recommended to 
the government the new policy of conducting the movements 
of all our armies by one plan, that of striking heavy blows 
everywhere at once. At once he went about arranging for it, 
and as soon as ready he crossed the Rapidan, Sherman and 
Thomas moved south, Sherman being left free to go as far and 
do what he pleased. Butler moved up the James, Sigel up the 
Shenandoah, Averill forward in West Virginia, Banks up the 
Red river and into Texas, McPherson into Mississippi. There 
was a simultaneous ''forward, march." It busied every depart- 
ment of the rebel army at once with the army in its front. No 
more helping one another. Then the Avork everywhere went 
steadily on. Every part of the great army was busy and kept 
busy till the final victory came. 

The great battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania and Cold 
Harbor, which cost fifty-four thousand Union lives, followed 
right on in quick succession; Sheridan swept the valley of the 
28 



434 OUR PRESIDEXTS. 

Shenandoah; Sherman spread consternation in his march to the 
sea, and others in their spheres were doing like decided work. 
From the Potomac to the Eio G-rande, Grant's spirit was in the 
army. Every man, from the /lieutenant-general to the private, 
was at his i:)ost and at work. In this fearful work of war the fall 
and winter wore away, all the country seeing that the confed- 
eracy must soon collapse. In due time Richmond fell, Peters- 
burg was taken, the country in that part of Virginia which had 
been the seat of rebel operations was in Grant's possession. The 
army of General Eobert E. Lee, which had so long supported the 
rebellion, was conquered. Seeing the hopelessness of further 
resistance, on the ninth of April, 1865, General Lee surrendered 
to General Grant. 

Both armies were now disbanded to go to their homes. The 
poor misguided Confederates went to desolated homes, to an 
impoverished country, to a wrecked and shattered state of 
society. The Union soldiers went home to prosperity, to plenty, 
even luxury among the people. But each carried home the 
moral degeneracy, the idleness and vices peculiar to Avar, to be 
slowly overcome by christian endeavor. 

Terrible past expression, are the calamities of war. The 
outward destruction of property, the cost in money, life and 
limb, the immeasurable waste to industry, are not the worst of 
the evil. The brutality, coarseness, hardness, profanity, drunk- 
enness, moral degeneracy, that it brings to and leaves in vast 
numbers, is a tremendous weight to be cast upon society. It 
takes a. generation to overcome the moral evils of such a war. 
Let men engage in devil's work and they will make themselves 
devils. War is a mighty corrupter of men and morals. It is 
time the civilized world was done with it. It is a burni7ig dis- 
grace to manhood and christian society that war is yet tolerated 
as a mode of settling difficulties among men and nations. It is 
to nations what the duel is to individuals — a relic of barbarism. 
But it has rid the United States of slavery, it may be said. 
Yes, so it has, but it was only using one evil to destroy another. 
It killed a million of white men, made a million widows and 
sorrowing mothers, desolated the southern states and immensely 



ULYSSES S. GRAXT. 435 

indebted the wliole country, to give freedom to four millions of 
slaves. 

Then, it may be rej)lied, that the south would never have 
given up its slaves in any other way. Possibly not. Yet it was 
the dearest possible way for the south to get rid of an evil 
which was its worst euemy. But it is past now, slavery, war 
and all. Let it be past, and all the enmity and moral and social 
evil that came with it. We are one country, one people, have 
one history and one future now. If we did have a war among 
ourselves, it was the greatest one ever had among men, and pro- 
duced the greatest generalship and soldiership, on both sides, 
yet known among men on so large a scale. 

But what did the war do for Ulysses S. Grant ? It made 
him. It took him from a low place, from a weak self-respect 
and self-control, from obscurity, from a possible, and perhaps 
probable, life-struggle with poverty and bad habits, and put him 
upon the pinnacle of a world-wide fame — gave him friends, 
confidence, even adulation, wealth, and the highest honor of 
the republic. But even this is not the best it did for him. It 
developed through all the years of the war a better and better 
manhood, an improving excellence of character. It is difficult 
for one to study the life of Grant and not see that from the time 
he entered the army of the Union at Springfield, he began to be 
a better man — more self-respecting, self-sacrificing — that he 
had more of the feeling that he was in the world for a purpose, 
which was to serve his country and his kind, to be a man 
genuine, large and useful. 

Six days after General Lee surrendered. President Lincoln 
was assassinated. Grant had no better friend than the presi- 
dent. Through all the fault found with Grant, he always believed 
in him, and defended him. 

Now came Andrew Johnson, as president, who objected to, 
and sought to hinder, the reconstruction measures of Congress, 
which proposed to give the ballot to the freedmen. A long 
contest between Congress and the executive followed, in which 
General Grant sought to stand on neutral ground. The presi- 
dent removed Mr. Stanton, secretary of war, and appointed 



436 OUR PRESIDEN^TS. 

General Grant ; but Congress objected to the removal, and so 
General Grant's cabinet position was short-lived. Slowly dragged 
along the weary length of President Johnson's time, which made 
the geileral's neutral jaosition an uncomfortable one. 

PRESIDENT GRAKT. 

On the twentieth of May, 1868, the national republican 
convention of six hundred and fifty delegates, met in Chicago 
and voted for a candidate for the next president. Every vote was 
for General Grant. Every state was represented. The enthu- 
siasm on the occasion was intense and tumultuously expressive. 
It told of a united country ; of reconstructed states ; of slavery 
abolished ; of harmony between the coming president and Con- 
gress ; of a new south in the years to come, and of a country to 
be, with all the sections prosperous, and at peace with each 
other. It was one of the greatest occasions in the history of this 
country, full of great epochs. The great leaders in thought, 
like Horace Greeley, Charles Sumner, Abraham Lincoln, had 
done their work in the minds and hearts of the nation. Discus- 
sion had been deep and strong for years, all the time winning 
men more and more to the doctrines of the declaration of inde- 
pendence. Now the time had come when these doctrines could 
be put into practice, when they were no longer an idle declara- 
tion, but a practical reality ; and the man who had been one of 
the most practical and powerful instruments in bringing about 
this state of things, was nominated for the presidency. It was 
inevitable that General Grant should be president. The people 
would have it so. His great work in the war, growing greater 
with each succeeding year, culminating at last in the destruction 
of the slave-holder's rebellion ; his simplicity of life, modesty, 
and plain honesty and common sense, had made him the one 
man whom the people would promote to the highest place of 
honor and trust. No matter if he had not been a civilian ; no 
matter if he had not voted but once, and then for Buchanan; no 
matter if he had been a slave-holder, and failed in self-govern- 
ment over his appetite, before the war; nobody else could be 
thought of for president. It was cruelty to him, but the people 



ULYSSES S. GKANT. 437 

did not mean it so. It was robbing him of his just dues, an 
unsullied and immortal reputation, to grow brighter through 
the ages, as one of the world's greatest captains; but this was not 
the intention. It was a moral impossibility that he should do 
in the presidency which he knew nothing of, as he had done in 
the army for which he had been trained, and in which he had 
seen much service under those great generals, Taylor and Scott. 
The country was never fuller of great civilians than at that time. 
The country never needed great civil talent, knowledge and 
experience, more than then. It was putting a landsman on board 
of a ship in a storm, to command it. Yes, it was cruelty to the 
general, who would have lived forever in the hearts of the people 
as the Wellington of America. So unwise is the love of a good 
people under such circumstances. 

The election Avent forward as did the convention, to the 
inevitable result, which made our great and lovable general 
a commonplace president. 

Commonplace he was obliged to be in a place as new to him 
_ as a new world. 

The place was as difficult as it was new. The conquered but 
sullen south ; the humiliated but not conquered democrats of 
the north, would both make him all the trouble they could. The 
republicans anxious to punish the south, and the republicans 
greedy for places in the north, were neither of them helpful to 
him. He, like the martyred Lincoln, had only kindness for the 
south, and kindness for everybody ; but he could not have his 
way in such turbulent times. 

He sought at tlie start to reform the civil service by appointing 
politically unambitious men to important posts of duty, but in 
these attempts the political managers soon worsted him and got 
their own way, so that before his administration was through, he 
was quite in their hands. By his good nature he was led to accept 
many presents from men who had personal interests to serve, 
listen to many counselors who were ambitious of their own pro- 
motion, appoint many relatives and intimates to places of trust 
and profit, to his own discredit, and give credence to schemes of 
plausible theorists, which did not gain wise confidence for him. 



438 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

In tlie army he easily and" naturally controlled all opposing 
wills ; in the government he was as easily controlled by adroit 
politicians ; so that beginning his administration as a reformer, 
he ended in close affiliation with the old line managers, or 
"machine" men as they were called. Seldom have more men in 
high places fallen into evil and brought disgrace to the govern- 
ment, than during the second term of his administration. He 
meant well, but was too closely invested by men and things 
which he could not manage, to gain much credit for his well 
meaning. Since the days of Washington, no military man has 
given the country a wise civil administration. And it must 
always be remembered that he was more a civilian than a soldier. 
The nation loved General Grant ; the nation bore with President 
Grant ; and yet by and by the great general will overgrow the 
less president, and he will live in the military honor he justly 
deserves. 

PRESIDENT GRANT THE TRAVELER. 

President Grant closed his public service on the fourth day 
of March, 1877. He had had sixteen years of continuous public 
duty, for the most part, in heavily responsible places. He had 
long desired to see the world. Now was his time. He had good 
health, as he always had, good eyes, and a placid spirit, which 
could sleep always, when it was time to sleep, and now he was 
in mood to go. On the seventeenth of May, 1877, he and his 
wife, son, and a party of friends, left Philadelphia, and went 
down the Delaware thirty-five miles, and boarded the " Indiana," 
which was ready for the voyage. They sailed directly for Eng- 
land, where he was received, as Lord Beaconsfield had deter- 
mined he should be, "as a sovereign." Perhaj)s no public man 
was ever more feted and feasted, and jiublicly honored, in 
England, from the humblest citizen to the queen, than was he. 
England loves great generals, and knows when she finds one. 
It may be that she was making up for her bad treatment of us, 
during the war, but yet she was magnaminous enough to treat 
our great general as he deserved. 

From England, President Grant and party went to Belgium, 



ULYSSES S. GRANT. 439 

to be received in a similar way ; and then to Germany and 
Switzerland, to be regaled by the mountain air and views ; and 
then across the channel to Scotland. Having taken a hasty 
run through Scotland and England, he crossed to France. 

After seeing the principal sights of this country, the " Indi- 
ana '' took its way, through the straits of Gibraltar, into the 
Mediterranean sea to Italy and Greece, and their wonders ; and 
then southward to Egypt, where carpets were spread on the 
ground to receive him, and old army comrades, then in the ser- 
vice of the king of Egypt, greeted him. Here, as elsewhere, 
king and people gave him a welcome. The Pyramids, the Nile 
and Upper Egypt, were in turn visited. The ruins of the ancient 
city of Abydos, claimed to be the cradle of civilization, greatly 
interested the party. Then up the river to the ruins of Thebes, 
once a city of three hundred thousand inhabitants, stretched for 
eight miles along either side of the river, the party went. Euins 
on ruins everywhere ! The statue of Memnon, the temple of 
Medinet Haboo, the avenue of the Sphinxes, and Karnac with 
its wilderness of ruins, were visited. 

From Egypt to the Holy Land they go, and instead of our 
general being allowed to enter Jerusalem thoughtfully and in 
quiet, he was met with an army with banners giving him a great 
welcome. From Palestine to Damascus, still ancient and beau- 
tiful, on to ConstantinojDle, Greece and Italy, and then to the 
Paris exhibition, the party went. 

Two weeks in Holland, then to Germany, King William and 
Bismarck, to Norway and Sweden, and Eussia, to be cordially 
received by the Czar, and then hurried to Spain, makes travel a 
campaign indeed. 

A French ship carried the general and party to Egypt again, 
and a Ked Sea steamer took them to India, that wonder-world 
of the east. Hindustan, Siam, and then China and Japan were 
taken in the trip, and the strange, ancient, curious things they 
hold. But Japan was delightful, fraternal, profoundly respect- 
ful, and held our party long in a charmed life. Then the " City 
of Tokio " took them across the Pacific to San Francisco. 

Soon followed a presidential election, and a strong movement 



440 



OUR PRESIDEN"TS. 



among General Grant's friends, wliicli many supposed he was 
party to, and in relation to wliicli this trip had been planned, to 
make him president for a third term. But the general suspicion 
that it was a "ring" movement defeated it. Not General 
Grant so much as the friends that clung to him, was feared. 

The life of Grant, like that of Lincoln, is a wonder life. It 
burst suddenly upon the world and strangely captivated it. By 
and by, when its mistakes sink more out of sight, and its real 
work and worth to the country rise into full view, it will be a 
wonder-chapter in the history of the republic. 




^l',^*^ 

^/'^Q^ 





ENGRAVED tXPPEESSL> FOR WEAVtRS LIVES AND GRAVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS" 



CHAPTER XX. 




EtTTHEEFOED BIECHAED HATES. 

Nineteenth PREsroENT op the United States. 

I^EEHAPS few presidents have been more truly repre- 
sentatives of the American people than Rutherford B. 
Hayes. He was not remarkable in any sense — not a 
remarkaljle scholar, or orator, or lawyer, or general, or 
governor, or president ; but did everything he undertook 
so well, and filled every place to which he was elected with 
such signal good sense, that he disarmed criticism and gained 
approval. He was nothing astonishing or captivating, but was 
simply a strong, good-sensed, practical man — as was said of 
another, " he was every inch a man." He was rounded, full of 
the meat of manliness, genuine in ever}'' phase of his ability and 
character. He was sure, and applied to his methods the rules of 
practical common sense. His every day and everywhere practical 
qualities made him a representative man. The common sense 
and common heart of the people he answered to and illustrated. 
He was not the marvelous product of a great period, nor the 
apostle of a great cause, nor the outgrowth of a great revolution, 
but was a naturally produced man of American society, reared 
by the rules of good living, and educated in the common, 
orderly way. 

Being reared by his mother, as his father died before his 
birth, he was from the beginning, under her wise and healthful 
influence, Avithout any counter influence from paternal misjudg- 
ments or misleading habits or practices. 

441 



4A2 OUE PRESIDEXTS. 

It is common for men to be less thoughtful about the 
thousand little things that go to influence a boy and to make up 
his character, than for women. Most men have opinions and 
practices of which it would be better for boys to know nothing. 

Many fathers lead their boys in the way of things of which 
they ought to be kept clear. Most fathers are skeptical about 
the need of so much guarding, cautioning and training, as 
mothers are impelled by their motherly instincts to constantly 
use in rearing their boys. Fathers often counteract the influence 
of mothers over their boys. Mothers usually give to fathers too 
much the direction of their boys, and are less mothers to them 
than they would be if they had no fathers. In the case of Mr. 
Hayes, the mother had her full power over him from the 
beginning, without any counteracting influence ; and the har- 
mony and completeness of his character and life are due not a 
little to this fact. He is another instance of the widow's son 
rising to life's heights of usefulness and honor. His successor, 
Mr. Garfield, is another. 

BIRTH AND BOYHOOD. 

Eutherford Birchard Hayes was born in Delaware, Ohio, 
October, 1822. His father was Rutherford Hayes, who came 
from Vermont in 1817. The hardiness and energy of the Ver- 
mont quality of men went into this Ohio Rutherford, at the 
beginning. He started into life with a good ancestral 
momentum behind him. Such a start is about half the making 
of a man. His mother was Sophia Birchard. Strictly speaking, 
Rutherford was an Ohio Vermonter. He had Vermont blood 
and qualities on Ohio soil. His father died before Rutherford 
was born ; so that his whole early training was given him by his 
mother. This was essentially Vermont training. She was 
reared in Vermont, and had the notions that prevailed there in 
her day, which were strict, leaning strongly to the puritanic. 
The moral atmosphere into which Rutherford was born was 
strong with positive qualities, and especially vigorous in the 
high moral forces. All the first years of his life he breathed 
this atmosphere, Avhich was oxygenated by his mother's inward 



EUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 443 

life. Out of this he went into the common school, where he 
enjoyed its opportunities througli the whole period of his boy- 
hood. A public school is a school in several senses ; it trains 
the mind ; it sharjDens the common sense in its close intercourse 
with all kinds of children ; it gives a good education in the 
science of human nature practically applied ; in its feats of 
agility and strength, it develops the physical; and tries the 
temper and disposition in many ways. Fortunate is the child 
trained early in a good common school. In a republic, the 
common school is one of the great sources of self-reliant char- 
acter and efficient, practical judgment. 

THE YOUTH AND STUDENT. 

From the common school our young Hayes went into Kenyon 
college, Ohio, where he went through the prescribed course and 
graduated in 1842, a little before he was twenty years old. 
Here was good fortune again ; for a small college, where the 
classes are so small that each student comes directly under the 
influence of the jn'ofessors; where acquaintance becomes general 
and much of the family feeling is engendered, and life-long 
friendships are formed, exerts a positive and powerful influence 
for good over a manly and aspiring young mind. The college is 
the efficient training school of the youthful and ambitious mind. 
Many grand and brilliant men do well without it, bnt they feel 
sorrow over its loss all the years of their manhood. The ques- 
tion of its vast importance is settled by a wide experience in all 
civilized countries. 

All the way, thus far, young Hayes has been moving along 
the best lines of ascending life. In this good and almost sure 
foundation everything has been well done. He is Avell born, 
well bred, well educated. 

He went from college into the law office of Thomas Sparrow, 
Esq., of Columbus, as a student at law. In 1843 he entered 
the law school of Harvard university, and studied two years 
under Judge Story and Professor Greenleaf, and was admitted 
to the bar in March, 1845. Here was a symmetrical and full 
education, like the man and life that followed it. There was 



444 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

no attempt to skip the hard places, or to set wp his judgment 
against the experience of the enlightened ages as to what is best 
in an educational course, or to take a short cut to his profession. 
He took the old well-beaten way, and followed it steadily 
through to the end. 

MR. HAYES THE LAWYER. 

He was now nearly twenty-three years old. He began the 
practice of law in Lower Sandusky, now Fremont, in Sandusky 
county, Ohio. Here he remained till 1850, doing such business 
and getting such exj)erience as come to a young lawyer in such 
places, already overrun with lawyers. Not satisfied with the 
outlook here, and being ambitious of a larger field, he moved to 
Cincinnati. These first years in a profession are the trying 
ones, in many respects. They try the character, the judgment, 
the ability and preparation. They are not yet removed from 
youthful temptation and follies, nor free from the.misjudgments 
of inexperience. Mr. Hayes had gone safely through this trying 
ordeal. His feet were planted on manhood's ground without 
harm to his heart, character or life. He soon grew into a 
reasonable practice in his new field, and in 1856 was an unsuc- 
cessful candidate for judge of the court of common pleas. In 
1859 he was chosen city solicitor, to fill a vacancy, by the city 
council, a handsome recognition of his rising capacity and 
merit. The next spring the people elected him to the same 
office. In 1851 he lost a re-election by the failure of the repub- 
lican ticket. 

MR. HAYES THE SOLDIER, 

Mr. Hayes, early identified himself with the republican party. 
He was a whig, with strong anti-slavery convictions and senti- 
ments, and came naturally into the new party. He took an 
earnest part in the election of Mr. Lincoln ; and when rebellion 
began to defy the government it defied him, and he at once 
offered himself to the governor of the state to defend the govern- 
ment against the rebel disunionists. June 7, 1861, Governor 
Dennison appointed him major of the twenty-third Ohio regi- 



EUTHERFOKD B. HAYES. 445 

ment of volunteer infantry, which soon after went into duty in 
West Virginia. In September General Eosecrans appointed him 
Judge Advocate of the department of Ohio, which position he 
held about two months, when he was promoted to the rank of 
lieutenant-colonel. In this capacity he commanded the twenty- 
third regiment during the early campaign in West Virginia in 
1862, and in the latter part of the year under General McClellan. 
In the sharp battle of South Mountain he was wounded. During 
this year he was appointed colonel of the seventy-ninth Ohio 
regiment, but was prevented from taking the command on 
account of the wound. Before he was able to go to the seventy- 
ninth he was appointed colonel of the twenty-third, and so 
remained with his old regiment. 

In the spring of 1864 Colonel Hayes was given the command 
of a brigade in General Crook's army, and went further south 
with a view to cut the communications between Richmond and 
the western part of the confederacy. At Cloyd mountain he 
stormed the enemy's position and gained an important victory. 
In September, 1864, his command was enlarged to the Kanawha 
division, which he commanded the rest of the year. 

While leading his brigade at the battle of Winchester, his 
command came suddenly to a morass about one hundred and fifty 
feet wide. It seemed to be a hinderance to their passage ; but 
the colonel rode in till his horse got mired, then he dismounted 
and went through on foot, with the water up nearly to his arms, 
his men following in resolute determination not to be outdone 
by their colonel. He was in the heat of this whole action, but 
escaped without a wound, though men fell thickly all about him. 
He led his brigade in the battles of Berryville and Opequan. 
He bore a conspicuous part under General Sheridan, and had 
command of a division in the battle of Cedar Creek, where his 
horse was shot under him. On account of his great services in 
this and the battles that went before it he was made brigadier- 
general, and still later was breveted major-general for ''bravery 
and distinguished services." 

The Ohio war record says: "He had three horses shot under 
him, and was four times wounded, once very severely." His 



446 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

whole war record was one of a brave and morally earnest soldier. 
He did not enlist for glory, but to put down the rebellion and 
save the country, in the hope that slavery would go down in the 
crash of the rebellion. He was among the first to enlist and the 
last to sheath his sword. He went through the whole war ; did 
noble service all the time ; went up and up by successive pro- 
motions ; made no failures ; gained many victories, and made it 
hard for rebellion and well for his country all the time. His 
war career was an even and complete one, like his own manhood. 
He was an example to his men, an honor to his country, and a 
terror to rebellion. 

While yet in the field, his district in Cincinnati elected him 
to Congress, and he took his seat December 4, 1865. He was 
re-elected the next year. In Congress he was not a noisy but a 
working member, and served his country with the same fidelity 
that he had in the field. 

GOVERISrOR HAYES. 

In 1867 Mr. Hayes was elected governor of Ohio. He 
resigned his seat in Congress, and was inaugurated January 13, 
1868. In 1869 he was re-elected. These elections were very 
hotly contested, and the forensic power of Governor Hayes was 
well attested. The great questions of reconstruction, negro 
suffrage, finance, etc., were before the country. It was a great 
period in our national history when our public men had to con- 
sider the most important matters of political economy, and when 
great moral questions were at issue. It was the epoch of national 
reconstruction. Since the revolution no other so important 
epoch had occurred. All that went into the constitution and 
construction and life of the nation in consequence of slavery was 
now to be eliminated. The evil that our fathers had not the 
moral courage to put away must now be cut out from the body 
politic which had grown a hundred years with the evil in it. It 
required dextrous surgery. All involved in the issues of the time 
came into discussion before the ]5eople of Ohio through the 
candidates for governor. Mr. Hayes proved himself master of 
the occasion. A fine speaker, he comprehended and presented 



KUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 447 

the issues of the occasion with convincing force. His clearness, 
his fairness, his thorough knowledge of the subjects he treated, 
his force of argument, and, above all, his strong moral per- 
ceptions of the duties of the hour, made his canvasses very 
influential with the people. They were significant occasions in 
the history of Ohio. And they had somewhat the effect with 
him that Mr. Lincoln's canvass of Illinois had upon his fortunes. 
They were heard by the nation. They gave him a national 
reiDutation. They were discussions of the great interests of the 
nation, and bore so strongly upon humanity and the enduring 
13rinciples of right, justice and honor, that they won for him 
national respect and confidence. 

In 1875, for the third time, Mr. Hayes was candidate for 
governor, and in the meridian of his strength rehearsed before 
the people of Ohio the principles involved in our form of govern- 
ment and the possibilities before the American people. The 
leading issue in this last canvass was the financial one. He 
argued for the resumption of specie payment, for a sound 
currency, for trade and commerce based on just principles, for 
national prosperity built upon integrity and mutual fairness. 
The currency was so disordered, and men's minds so disordered 
with it, that almost a craze had set in in favor of cheap money — 
congressional promises not representing any value nor having 
any specie equivalent. For some years neither banks nor govern- 
ment had paid specie on their notes. Business had prospered, 
had even inflated. Some thought that this state of things 
could go on indefinitely, and specie might be remanded to per- 
petual imprisonment or be used for mechanical and ornamental 
purposes. It took great discussion to lead the people to see the 
need of the resumption of specie payment and a currency based 
on specie. Mr. Hayes took an active part in this discussion, 
and did much to secure the sound conclusion which the country 
finally reached. 

Previous to this last election for governor, Mr. Hayes had 
run for Congress and been beaten, giving him a brief respite 
from public life. 

But this canvass, in which Mr. Hayes secured an election as 



448 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

governor for the third time, so touched national issues, and was 
so commended by the better judgment of the nation, that he 
became a national man, and was looked to as one likely to be 
called upon to serve in national capacities. 

Mr. Hayes was inaugurated governor the third time, in Jan- 
uary, 1876, and served through the centennial year of the 
Declaration of Independence. 

The rei3ublican state convention of that year met in March, 
and recommended the name of Eutherford B. Hayes to the 
national convention as the candidate for the presidency. The 
national republican convention met in that year, June 14, at 
Cincinnati, and after the convention was organized, June 15, 
ex-Governor Noyes, of Ohio, presented the name of Governor 
Hayes as Ohio's choice for the next president. He received the 
nomination, and the national canvass in his behalf was a very 
spirited one. Mr. Tilden, of New York, was the democratic 
candidate. 

President Grant had been the national executive eight years. 
He began as a civil service reformer, but he soon fell into the 
good graces, and then into the hands of the macliine rings, that 
during his time, held the party domination, and, under their 
lead, which in his last term he did not seem to try to resist, the 
party rapidly lost the confidence of the people. Many demo- 
crats, which, during the war and after, had acted with the repub- 
licans, went back and voted for Tilden. Many republicans got 
lukewarm, and lost their zeal, fearing that corrupt men were 
getting too much favor from the leaders. In Grant's eight 
years, the party had lost moral tone. It may have been inevi- 
table as a consequence of war's demoralization. Incompetent 
and often demoralized soldiers claimed leading places of trust. 
Incompetency and defalcation became too common. Hence, 
though the republicans had been overwhelmingly triumphant, 
since the election of Mr. Lincoln, they now had so lost ground 
that when the electoral votes came to be counted, there were 
honest doubts as to who should be counted in. There had been 
great fraud in some of the southern states in forcibly refusing 
negro votes and in maintaining a reign of terror against colored 



RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 449 

supremacy, or even participation in elections. In the uncer- 
tainty, confusion and indignation, an electoral commission was 
proposed and agreed upon to go to the states where fraud and 
force were charged as having been used at the election, and 
inquire into the facts and determine what electoral votes should 
be counted. This commission performed its duties, and by its 
decision Mr. Hayes was counted in. 

MR. HAYES AS PRESIDENT. 

Mr. Hayes was inaugurated President on March 4, 1877. 
Not before, perhaps, had any American executive taken his 
seat under such unfavorable circumstances. The democrats 
generally felt that their candidate had received a majority of 
the popular votes, and were in no mood to be pliable subjects of 
am executive who had gone into office under such circumstances. 
To their credit, it must be said, that they laid nothing in Presi- 
dent Hayes' way. Much as they scolded, they behaved well. 
Much as their leaders were disappointed, they acted the part of 
men. They had agreed to the electoral commission, and sub- 
mitted with manly grace to its decision, though they generally 
thought it was not right. 

Our republican institutions have received few severer shocks 
than on that occasion. There have been many revolutions on 
less occasions. We may all feel safer and more in the right in 
our devotion to popular government, because our citizens so 
considerately bore themselves in peace through that emergency. 

In his letter of acceptance of the nomination, Mr. Hayes had 
said : "Believing that the restoration of the civil service to the 
system established by Washington, and followed by the early 
Presidents, can be best accomplished by an executive who is 
under no temptation to use the patronage of his office to j)romote 
his own re-election, I desire to perform what I regard as a duty, 
in stating now my inflexible purpose, if elected, not to be a 
candidate for election to a second term." 

This explicit statement was believed by the country. His 
public service in the army and in Ohio had taught the people 
that what he said he meant. The defeated party knew that a 
29 



450 OUE PKESIDENTS. 

fair chance to vote again would be open to them in four years, 
when a new candidate would oppose them. They knew also the 
honorable, generous and truthful man who was to be president, 
and doubtless many had no doubt of a good administration at 
his hands. All things considered, with such a man they had 
nothing to fear. 

In his letter of acceptance, he had also announced his belief 
in civil service reform. He said: '*The reform should be 
thorough, radical, complete. We should return to the prin- 
ciples and practice of the founders of the government, supplying 
bj legislation when needed, that which was formerly the estab- 
lished custom. They neither expected nor desired from the 
public officer any partisan service. They meant that public 
officers should owe their whole service to the government and 
the people." He pledged himself to these principles. The 
whole country knew that he would stand by these statements. 
Then what had any party to fear ? His letter of acceptance, 
which covered the whole ground, was an assurance to the whole 
country that his would be a sound and useful administration. 
He gave as truly a national administration as a man elected by a 
party well can, and his party secured a revival of its old strength 
therefrom, so that its next candidate was elected triumphantly. 
His administration closed with general good feeling. 

MR. hates' marriage AND FAMILY. 

Mr. Hayes was married December 20, 1852, to Miss Lucy 
Webb, of Delaware, Ohio, whom he first met while a young 
lawyer of Cincinnati, at the Delaware Sulphur Springs. She 
was at that time a member of the Wesleyan Female College, of 
Cincinnati. 

The marriage proved most happy ; and to it is attributed by 
many the uniform success of Mr. Hayes in every position, and 
the harmony and efficiency of his life. She has been a help- 
meet indeed, and has won world-wide praise for herself as well 
as for the help she has given him. She is of excellent 
parentage ; finely reared and educated ; a sincere member of the 
Methodist Episcopal church ; healthy in body and mind ; 



EUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 451 

cheerful, and a lover of the beautiful, but simple in her tastes 
and strong in her purposes and sense of duty. 

They have had eight children, five of whom still live to make 
glad their home circle. 

While Mr. Hayes was governor of Ohio his wife contributed 
not a little to the harmony and efficiency of his official success. 
She was the happy and salutary center of a social circle and 
influence which made the executive mansion the promoter of 
good-will and all good offices. She took an active interest in 
state and local charities, in her church and the community about 
her, which brought a harvest of confidence and good-will, not 
only to herself, but to him. In the army she was much with 
him — was called the mother of his regiment, and won to him 
much good influence. 

Mrs. Hayes' administration in the White House was as 
symmetrical and harmonious as his in the executive chair. She 
carried her own simple and hearty tastes into her home life and 
receptions there, and ordered all her conduct by her clear 
christian judgment, not asking what had been or would be done, 
but only what she thought most fitting for a christian woman 
in the executive mansion of the nation to do. All falsity was 
banished, and the president's home was just what it had always 
been, only it was in Washington and the White House. She was 
happy here, as she was everywhere, and kept away from him 
many an annoyance, complaint and trouble. 

When President Hayes got to Washington he began to see 
at once the evil effects of intoxicating drinks on many men in 
high places. It soon became so apparent to him that he resolved 
on an example of total abstinence at the executive house. In 
this he had the grateful support of Mrs. Hayes. From his own 
statement it is to be inferred that this was his movement, know- 
ing, of course, that it would meet with her heartiest approval. 

No occupants of the White House ever more graced it with 
personal agreeableness or ease and animation of manners. Of 
elegant forms, fine features, healthful and happy bodies and 
spirits, they were pronounced by a long resident of Washington 



453 OUK PEESIDENTS. 

" the finest looking type of man and woman that I have seen 
take up their abode in the "White House." 

It has often been said that there has been no purer adminis- 
tration of the American government than that of President 
Hayes. Its effect on the country was healing and happy. In 
no place in this country is real virtue, Judgment and high senti- 
ment so beneficial as in the executive mansion. They are a 
benediction on the whole country. They permeate society and 
give strength to every good cause. Our best men and women 
are needed for that highest place in our free society. 

It is a cause of profound thankfulness that in the first 
hundred years of our national existence so many grand men and 
women have been elevated to tliis highest place. It has been 
greatly honored by many of those who have occupied it. They 
have, without exception, been men of ability and commanding 
personal power. Their deficiencies have been chiefly in the 
moral qualities. Not that any bad men have been so elevated, 
but that some have risen to this place as successful politicians, 
as men of strong minds and ambitions, without any corre- 
spondingly great moral purposes. A strong moral equipment is 
an absolute necessity for a great president or a greatly successful 
administration. 

THE HATES HOME. 

At the close of his very successful administration, ex-Presi- 
dent Hayes retired to his family home in Fremont, Ohio. It is 
on Birchard avenue, named for Sardis Birchard, uncle and 
guardian of Mr. Hayes. The house was built by Mr. Birchard 
in 18G0. It is in the center of some thirty acres of woodland. 
The house is brick, two stories high, with wide verandas. The 
estate of this uncle came to Mr. Hayes, placing him out of 
want's way. In quiet and intellectual retirement ex-President 
and Mrs. Hayes give themselves to the social, charitable and 
religious duties of the society about them, honored and haj^py 
in their domestic and neighborly comfort. 





' '^-rf^^ (TA^^^ /.■■-/' ^ 



/' 




LNOBfl/EP CVPREE 






CHAPTER XXT. 



.JAMES ABEAM GAEFIELD. 

Twentieth President op the United States. 



4^^ 



ANCESTRY. 




N the life and character of James A. Garfield there Is 
much to instruct and stir every reader. No one can 
help feeling that he is reading of greatness, worth and 
•^ power. There is a fineness, a stalwartness, a rich nobility 
f.^ so winning and commanding that his common acts seem 
'^ invested with a manly charm. With a history reaching 
back in his ancestry to England, Wales, Germany and France, 
covering nearly the whole colonial history of America, rising 
into prominence in the first century of the United States, and 
in his person to the highest place in the gift of the j)eoi)le, he 
becomes a character to attract and hold the interest of all who 
read of him. He seems to have been a sort of reservoir, into 
which several ancestral streams poured their choicest waters. 
In his own case we are reminded of what he said in one of his 
great public addresses: "Who shall estimate the effect of those 
latent forces enfolded in the spirit of a new born child — forces 
that may date back centuries and find their origin in the life, 
thought and deeds of remote ancestors — forces, the germs of 
which enveloped in the awful mystery of life, have been trans- 
mitted silently from generation to generation and never perish! 
All-cherishing nature, provident and unf orgetting, gathers up all 
these fragments, that nothing be lost, but that all may ulti- 

453 



454 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

mately reappear in new combinations. Each new life is thus 
the 'heir of all the ages/ the possessor of qualities which only 
the events of life can unfold." This fine recognition of the law 
of heredity is illustrated in him. And another has said: 
''Nine tenths of a man's genius is hereditary. The inherited 
portion may appear large, but it is to be remembered that only 
possibilities are inherited, and that not one man in a million 
reaches the limit of his ]30ssibilities." 

Mr. Garfield was of English descent, with a vein of Welsh 
blood. One of the family ancestors married into a German 
family, bringing in a current of Teutonic blood. 

Edward Garfield, from Cheshire, England, settled in Water- 
town, Massachusetts, in 1636. Erom him down through several 
generations of hardy and patriotic men came Solomon Garfield, 
the great-grand-father of James A. Garfield. In this line was 
one Abraham Garfield, who was in the battles of Lexington and 
Concord, in 1775. They were a strong, heroic, industrious class 
of men ; resolute, vigorous and common-sensed. Solomon 
Garfield was in the revolutionary war, did faithful service to the 
end, and soon after removed to Otsego county. New York, where 
he opened a small farm in the forest and reared his family of 
five children. Thomas was the oldest of the family, and was 
the grand-father of James A. Garfield. He married Asenath 
Hill, and in December, 1799, their son Abram was born. Abram 
Garfield was a man of fine physique, tall, broad-shouldered, 
sinewy, and very active. Many traditions are in the family of 
his feats of strength and agility. Thomas died just at the 
opening of this century, leaving Abram to fight his own battle 
of life. 

Abram followed the setting sun to the Western Eeserve, 
Ohio, where he built him a cabin, cleared his patch, and began 
life in the wilderness. 

The maternal ancestry of James A. Garfield was still more 
marked in strong characteristics; but they were mental. On 
the father's side there was great bodily power; on the mother's 
side, great power of mind. His mother was Eliza Ballou, born 
in Richmond, New Hampshire, and was a relative of Reverend 



JAMES ABEAM GARFIELD. 455 

Hosea Ballon, born in tlie same town, the distinguished pioneer 
of Universalism. Several Universalist clergymen of the same 
family connection have been noted for learning, piety and 
christian zeal. Honorable Maturin Ballon, member of Congress 
from Ehode Island, is of the same family and the same devotion 
to moral and religious life. The father of Hosea Ballon was a 
Baptist clergyman. ^'The Ballous were a race of preachers,'' 
says one of the biographers of Garfield. Probably no family in 
America ever gave the world so many strong and eminent clergy- 
men. " One of them, himself a preacher, had four sons who were 
ministers of the gospel, and one of these had three sons who were 
preachers, and one of these had a son and grandson who 
were preachers." 

The family descended from Maturin Ballon, who was a 
Huguenot and fled from persecution in France in 1G85, and 
settled in Cumberland, Khode Island. Here a church was 
built, which still stands, called the "Elder Ballon Meeting 
House," in which great numbers of the Ballous have preached. 
Of this family was Eliza Ballon. From her side her gifted son 
inherited his bright intellectuality, his strong moral and 
religious sensibilities, his oratory, love of study, his taste, 
suavity, and resolution in the performance of duty. Such a 
union as that of Abram Garfield and Eliza Ballon is prophetic 
of great possibilities in some of their children. 

BIRTH, BOYHOOD AKD YOUTH. 

James Abram Garfield was born in Orange, Cuyahoga 
county, Ohio, November 19, 1831. He was the youngest of four 
children, Mehetabel, Thomas, Mary and James. His parents 
had been in Ohio only long enough to get well started in their 
forest home when he came to cheer it. The log house, a little 
cleared land, a few acres fenced in and a crop Avell grown 
prepared the way for his coming. 

In May, 1833, when James was eighteen months old, a fire 
broke out in the woods near the Garfield settlement, which 
threatened to destroy all their improvements. The few neigh- 
bors fought it with desperation. Abram Garfield, after a long 



456 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

contest with the fire, rested, only to take a severe cold, which 
brought on a congestion of the lungs, of which, in a few days, 
he died. 

This was a fearful blow to this now apparently helpless 
family. The little farm was only partly paid for ; only a little 
of it was cleared ; Thomas, the oldest boy, was but ten years 
old; the afflicted mother^s hands seemed to be tied with strings 
of care to her little flock. How could she feed and clothe them 
and pay the debt on the farm, so as to hold it as a home. The 
neighbors saw no way but for her to break up and scatter her 
children among relatives and neighbors, who would take them 
rather than see them suffer. But she said ''No." She believed 
in the good Heavenly Father's providence over her and her 
dependent charge. She believed in love and duty, trust and 
hope, and she resolutely determined to keep her children to 
grow up together and love and do for each otlier. With a wis- 
dom and fortitude found only in a mother's love, she faced the 
hard task before her, and with a bereft and lonely heart, put 
her life's toil and care into the ever-prayerful work that had 
come to her hands. 

Thomas was her stay and help and comfort. Boy as he was, 
he had to be the man of the house and barn and farm. The 
crops were to be tended and harvested that season ; the stock 
cared for; the wood chopped; provisions made for winter; all 
the little chores done ; the milling and the business of the 
family attended to, and all by a ten-year-old boy. But Thomas 
did not falter. He did it all, save what his sisters and his 
mother could help. They worked and lived and loved together, 
and the laughing, growing, fat and healthy baby was the Joy of 
them all. Many stories are told of this baby as peculiarly bright 
and forward, but it is altogether probable that he was much 
like others of his kind, and gave as few premonitions of his 
coming greatness. Babies are not often great. But one thing 
is certain, that Thomas Garfield must have his full share of 
credit for what James came to be. He was father and brother 
in one to the orphan babe, and led him on to youth and man- 
hood with a noble and self-sacrificing fidelity. Few sights in 



JAMES ABRAM GAEFIELD. 457 

this world are more tenderly beautiful than such a saddened 
yet chastened family. 

In due time there was built near the Garfield home, that 
marvelous institution, the country school-house, and James 
with the rest went to be initiated into its mysteries. It is said 
of him that he was an uneasy little scholar, pestering the 
teacher out of her wits, in the effort to keep him still, and com- 
pelling her at last to go to his mother with the distressing story 
that he was doing no good in school. What should she do ? 
And yet she must do something ; and so she did what all good 
mothers do in such cases — she talked to him out of her mother 
heart, and he went to school the next day resolved to "sit as 
still as he could." 

As soon as able, he became Thomas' helper on the little farm 
and a producer of the necessaries of life. He was born to work, 
as he was to poverty. 

The nearest neighbor was a family of Boyntons, near rela- 
tives, in which were six children, which, with the Garfields, made 
a merry group. Their work and play, studies and reading, were 
had together, as much as possible. Of books, they had few, but 
they were read till they were familiar. The older children in 
this group formed a "class of critics," to watch each other's 
use of words and to study the meaning of words and the con- 
struction of sentences. James always thought this "class of 
critics " was of great help to him in giving him the quality of 
critical observation of language. 

When James was about ten years old, Thomas went to Mich- 
igan to earn some money in clearing land, and when he 
returned, brought seventy-five dollars. They were rich now, 
they thought, and Thomas proposed building a frame house for 
the family. On this, James worked and took his first lessons in 
carpentry. After the house was built, he worked among the 
neighbors on barns and out-buildings, and thus became quite an 
adept in this business. While at this work, he put up a building 
for a potash-maker, who was a man of considerable means and 
business for that vicinity, who, because he could read and write 
and keep accounts, proposed to give James fourteen dollars a 



458 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

month to become his clerk and general helper. This looked like 
wealth coming in upon him like an avalanche. One day while 
here, one of the women of the family spoke to him as a servant, 
Avhich so incensed him that he left at once. He was no slave, 
and would not tolerate such insolence. 

In his sixteenth summer, he engaged to cut for an uncle, a 
hundred cords of wood at twenty-five cents a cord, which job he 
completed in due time. In these muscular, self-denying, and 
self-sharpening pursuits, James spent his boyhood and youth. 
The winter school was his opportunity for an education. 

During this time, the subject of religion was presented to his 
young mind, by the Disciple preachers, who were urging their 
views with great persistency in that region. They discussed the 
subject of baptism with great positiveness, and their peculiarly 
literal interpretations of scripture were incisive, dogmatic, 
zealous and disputatious. They were often at his mother's, and 
won the confidence of the family. James became a "Disciple/' 
and was thus early led to view life in its religious aspects, and 
to shape his thoughts, character and daily life under the light of 
christian teachings. 

But the time had come when he must strike out for some- 
thing definite in life. He had read some of Captain Maryatt's 
sea stories, and had become enamored of sea life. He mused on 
it by day and dreamed of it at night. And now that he had 
become old enough and Lake Erie with its many vessels afforded 
him a chance, he saw an opportunity, he thought, to make his 
vision of sea-going life a reality. His mother could not dissuade 
him from it, and with a heavy heart and many prayers for his 
safety, she fixed him off. With his bundle on his back and a 
few dollars in his pocket, she saw him depart on foot for Cleve- 
land, but besought him again as he left her to get employment 
on land if possible. 

He tried many places but found no open door, and then 
went down among the vessels, to find as he fondly hoped the 
open way to a life on the rolling deep. But to his modest 
inquiries he received oiily coarse and profane rebuffs. Failing 
here, he concluded to go up to the canal and see if he could find 



JAMES ABKAM GAKFIELD. 459 

liis cousin, who was captain on a canal boat. He found him and 
soon made a bargain to drive a team for tlie "Evening Star." 
The next morning he was promptly on hand and began his new 
employment which had a hint of sea life in it. Before the end 
of the first day he, with his mules, was jerked into the canal. 
When the captain called out, "Jim, what are you doing there?" 
he jocosely replied, "Taking a bath." Many stories of his 
canal-boat life are told of him, all characteristic of his energy, 
courage, cheerfulness and fidelity. 

But not long did this continue, for one rainy midnight he 
was thrown into the canal where the water was deep, in uncoil- 
ing a rope. As he sank in the water with none to help, he saw 
nothing but drowning before him. But soon the rope which he 
held fast to tightened in his hand and he began to draw himself 
toward the boat, hand over hand. In this way he drew him- 
self into the boat, when he found that a kink in the rope had 
held it for him to draw himself up. He threw the rope out 
again and again, and many times, to see if it would kink again, 
but it would not. He began to meditate on his singular deliver- 
ance. AVas it providential? He could not comprehend how the 
rope should so kink, or how it should hold him when so kinked; 
and he said to himself, that if it was providential and his life 
was worth such a deliverance, he would go home, educate him- 
self and make the most he could of it. 

This accident, and the meditation it caused, changed the 
tone and course of his life. The sea-vision vanished. The 
romance of story life departed ; and the counsel of his mother 
to get an education, came to him with overwhelming force. 
That was his last trip on the "Evening Star." His next trip 
was on foot to his mother's door, which he reached late in the 
evening, to see her through the window, on her knees before the 
open bible, and to hear her say in prayer : "Oh, turn unto me, 
and have mercy upon me. Give thy strength to thy servant, 
and save the son of thy handmaid." He waited but a moment, 
and opened the door and went in-, in answer to her prayer. The 
feeling with which they embraced each other can be better 
imagined than expressed. Could they doubt that a kind Provi- 



460 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

dence had kept nim and led him back? All the religious trust 
and enthusiasm of his nature, which had come to him through 
generations of his mother's ancestors, now crystalized into a 
purpose to devote his life to an education and such usefulness as 
should open to him. No plan was formed; no vision seen; only 
a "Thy will be done/^ was j)rayed in his heart. Thus far his 
life had been a sort of seeding time — nothing more. Nothing 
visible had come of it but a large, muscular, active, cheerful 
youth; nothing invisible had come of it but this one newly 
formed purpose, and the discipline which his rude, hard-working 
experience had given him. 

And yet this puri)ose was often shaken for a time. The old 
desire for the sea would return; the old longing for roving would 
almost command him to be away. He had a season of struggle 
to get his feet well on the right road. But he was helped in this 
by a period of sickness — fever and ague — which he had contracted 
on the canal, and which came on soon after he got home. It 
lasted him three months. During this sickness, the old longing 
for the sea would come on, and he would think that in the spring 
he would find a place on the lake. Then his mother would tell 
him of his enfeebled health, and how, if he would go to school 
at the academy a term, he could teach school the next winter. 
That winter, a young man by the name of Samuel D. Bates, 
taught the school near his mother's. He was a student from 
Chester, and was zealous to take back with him several young 
men. He won James Garfield to his project. 

Garfield's school life. 

Once at school, young Garfield's feet were planted in the new 
way. Two young men went with him to the Geauga seminary 
at Chester, Geauga county, Ohio. It was a Free Will Baptist 
academy. He at once entered into his studies with zeal. He 
made it a j^oint to get every lesson well, to be present at every 
recitation, at every morning session of the school, and at every 
literary exercise. In the literary society he at once took an active 
part. Here he wrote his first essays, made his first speeches, 
was first awakened to the glory of a scholar's life. He became 



JAMES ABRAM GAEFIELD. 461 

an enthusiast in his studies, in academic associations. Books, 
teachers, students, school, all became objects of delight to him. 
It was a new world, and he became enrapt in its charmed life. 

Here was, a student with him, the daughter of a farmer, 
Miss Lucretia Eudolph, who afterward became his wife, and 
stood by him, with his mother, when he was inaugurated presi- 
dent of the United States. 

Near the academy was a carpenter's shop where he worked 
Saturdays, and some mornings and evenings, to earn money to 
pay his board and buy his books. In the summer vacations he 
worked for the farmers at haying and harvesting. In the 
winters he taught school. He was self-helping and self- 
educating all the time, learning how to get and use money, the 
value of time, economy, plain living, simple dressing and self- 
restraint. Hands, heart, conscience and intellect were all being- 
educated together. Young Garfield was at this academy nearly 
three years. 

At Hiram, in the same county, the Discij)les had started an 
institution of a higher grade, called at first the "Eclectic Insti- 
tute," afterward Hiram college. His family, his neighbors, 
himself, were ''Disciples," and it was natural, right and best 
that he should go to his own church school. At that stage of 
his life it was best for him to be with his own. He was in sym- 
pathy with them, had a religious and personal interest in their 
institution, and was not only ambitious for himself, but for his 
church. 

In 1851 he went to Hiram and at once entered with great 
zeal not only into his studies but into all the interests of that 
young institution. It developed in him a public spirit, a larger 
purpose in his study than his own improvement. It was the 
consecrated door out into the great world, for which he after- 
ward felt such a broad and humane interest. His student life 
at Hiram had the best possible educational influence on his 
character. It united religious and moral training with his 
mental growth, and gave them all a large outlook into the 
world. It gave him an opj^ortunity to become a free and 
earnest speaker in religious meetings and on religious topics, so 



462 OUE PRESIDENTS. 

that he grew faster, and Avarmer, and broader than he would 
anywhere else. Hiram was the Providential place for Garfield. 
He was self -helpful, jovial and full of animal spirits, and yet 
reverent, tender and thoroughly conscientious of the minor 
strains to which his own life had been keyed from the 
beginning. 

He went to Hiram when nineteen, and at once applied for the 
place of sweeper and bell-ringer, to pay his way. After three 
years at Hiram he went to Williams college, Massachusetts. 
His reasons for going there instead of to Bethany, the Disciple 
college, were that the course at Williams was better ; Bethany 
leaned too heavily toward slavery; he was a "Disciple," and his 
family were, and he had been thus far, educated among "Disci- 
ples;" now he thought it would "make him more liberal in 
both his religious and general views and sentiments to go into a 
new circle, where he should be under new influences." 

He remained two years at Williams, and won golden opinions 
from professors and students. The religious students, especially, 
enjoyed his simple, childlike piety. The intellectual students 
enjoyed his scholarly attainments and quick and strong grasp of 
mind. The hard-working students gloried in his studious 
habits, his drudgery in search of facts and the bottom of all 
subjects Avliich he investigated. All classes felt drawn to him 
by his frankness, cordiality, great-heartedness. 

He graduated in 1856, with the honor of the metaphysical 
oration, and his topic Avas "Matter and Spirit." He left Williams 
with the profoundest regard for its honored president. Doctor 
Hopkins, and full of rich memories of students, professors, 
people and place. 

GARFIELD A TEACHER. 

Mr. Garfield began his teaching in the common school and 
always had excellent success both in instruction and government. 
At Hiram, he was employed the second and third years as 
assistant teacher in several studies. After his graduation from 
Williams, he returned to Hiram with all his ambitions quickened 
to a life of instruction. To graduate from a good college, had 



JAMES ABEAM GARFIELD. 463 

been the height of his ambition ; so now he took up his work in 
a kind of ecstacy of fulfillment. His nature was expanded, his 
heart full, his soul at peace. The next year, 1857, he was made 
president of Hiram college. It was his view that a ''teacher 
must be full of manhood, full of life, full of those qualities 
which he would impart to others," and this was Garfield. He 
was abounding and running over with the freshness and exuber- 
ance, of mental, moral and physical vitality. His lectures in 
the chapel "were full of fresh facts, new thoughts, striking- 
illustrations, and were warm with the glow of his own life." 
His students often felt that there was something marvelous in 
his overflowing fullness of knowledge and enthusiasm. He won 
them to himself and held by hooks of steel. He magnetized 
them with his personality. 

Mr. Garfield came back to Hiram, to find his school friend 
and affianced a teacher in the college. On November 11, 1858, 
they were married. All their students and friends enjoyed this 
consummation of their desires. It seemed the fitting thing for 
them both. 

While president at Hiram, he entered his name as a law 
student in a legal firm at Cleveland, and studied so thoroughly 
that in due time he was admitted to the bar, so well prepared as 
to be able to practice in any of the courts. 

In 1859 he was invited to deliver the master's oration, at the 
commencement at Williams. On his return, he found he had 
been nominated for the State Senate. In January, 18G0, he 
took his seat, when only thirty years old — the youngest member. 
That year he gave a Fourth of July oration at Eavenna, 
animated with the most fervid patriotism and expressed in terms 
of stirring eloquence. 

It must not be forgotten that from the time Mr. Garfield 
began to study, through his life as a student, a teacher, law- 
student and state senator, he was an active religious man. He 
was faithful to his church, to his personal religious duties, and 
to the great gatherings of the Disciples. Quite early he began 
to preach. After he was through college and while teaching, 
he preached often at the gatherings of the brethren, to great 



464 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

acceptance. He supplied vacant pulpits, led prayer meetings, 
gave Sunday-school addresses, instructed classes in Sunday- 
school, and did all things needful to be done to bear on the work 
of the church. In all this he showed the versatility of his 
talents, the exuberance of his heart, and the laboriousness of 
his constitution. He was a living working machine — almost 
perpetual motion in every good cause. 

Through the whole life of his youth and manhood he was 
actively anti-slavery; so that his political views were shaj)ed to 
that view of political relations and duties. To him the slave 
was a man and had his natural rights which no other man 
might abridge. On this subject he was out-spoken, positive 
and religiously earnest. 

A teacher, a lawyer, a preacher, a student, an anti-slavery 
man, and intensely patriotic, he went into the State Senate in 
1860, and was in it in 1861 when Fort Sumpter was fired upon by 
pro-slavery secessionists. Of course all Garfield's power would 
be aroused in oiaposition. He had sprung from revolutionary 
patriots. His whole life had been one of humanity and fair- 
dealing. A secession and a war to promote slavery was to him 
a pair of atrocious crimes. 

When President Lincoln's call for seventy-five thousand men 
was read in the senate, Mr. Garfield sprang to his feet and 
moved that Ohio furnish' twenty thousand men and three mill- 
ions of dollars, as her quota. Mr. Garfield at once offered him- 
self to Governor Dennison to serve in any capacity in the cause 
of the Union. The governor sent him to St. Louis for five 
thousand stands of arms that General Lyons had placed there. 

Having secured the shipment of these, the governor ordered 
him to hasten to Cleveland to organize the seventh and eighth 
regiments of Ohio infantry. The governor then appointed Mr. 
Garfield lieutenant-colonel and authorized him to raise a regi- 
ment on the Western Eeserve. The Hiram students dropped 
their books and hastened to follow their president. The regi- 
ment was made up mostly of his personal friends. It went to 
Columbus without a colonel, because Mr. Garfield thought he 
was too inexperienced in military affairs. After much persua- 



JAMES ABEAM GAEFIELD. 465 

sion he accepted the appointment and went about training him- 
self for a military leader. About this time he wrote to a friend : 
"One by one my old plans and aims, modes of thought and 
feeling, are found to be inconsistent with present duty, and are 
set aside to give place to the new structure of military life. It 
is not without regret, almost tearful at times, that I look upon 
the ruins. But if, as the result of the broken plans and shat- 
tered individual lives of thousands of American citizens, we can 
see on the ruins of our national errors a new and enduring 
fabric arise, based on a larger freedom and a higher justice, it 
will be but a small sacrifice indeed. For myself I am contented 
with such a prospect, and regarding my life as given to my 
country, I am only anxious to make as much of it as possible 
before the mortgage upon it is foreclosed." 

COLOIS^EL GARFIELD. 

Now it was military drill instead of college drill. President 
and students entered with zeal into the preparation for war's 
dread desolations. Tlie regiment did not get off south till the 
middle of September. The colonel was invited personally to 
visit General Buell at Louisville. After consultation, Buell 
ordered him and his regiment to east Kentucky ; made a new 
army division for him, and united the troojDs in that section 
under him to operate against the rebel Marshall, who was doing 
much mischief in that vicinity. Colonel Garfield had been made 
a brigadier-general, and in this new official capacity he entered 
into his work. 

Colonel Garfield acquainted himself with the situation, and 
routed Marshall from his entrenched position without a battle 
by his dextrous management of his forces. The next day, 
following them up, they had a fierce battle at Middle Creek 
with a foe several times their number, and gained a Union 
triumph. The Hiram students were in the thickest of the 
fight, and proved themselves to have the spirit of their general. 

It was midwinter. Heavy rains, even floods, filled the 
valleys, and snow covered the mountains. Of all roads and 
regions they were in the worst. They depended on little 
30 



466 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

steamers to take provisions up the Big Sandy river. But it was 
filled with floating trees and everything to hinder. The colonel 
and a guide, by the name of Brown, went down the river in a 
skifl and brought up a boat where the captain said it was impos- 
sible to go, the colonel commanding. 

On the sides of the mountain the rebels had an encampment 
from which Garfield dislodged them by taking several hundred 
men up the cliffs and around the brow of the mountain over ice 
and snow, where mortal man was never expected to go. He 
cleaned out the valleys and swept east Kentucky clear of armed 
rebels. It was at a time when the Union cause was in gloom, 
and it gave great encouragement to General Buell, President 
Lincoln and the country. 

GENERAL GARFIELD. 

President Lincoln at once commissioned him brigadier- 
general, and gave him the command of the twentieth brigade, 
which was in the battle of Shiloh and at the siege of Corinth. 
General Eosecrans appointed him on his staff, and soon made 
him chief-of-staff. He was in the great battles of east Ten- 
nessee, Chattanooga, Ohickamauga and Missionary Eidge, and 
did eminent service, for which he received the promotion as 
major-general for gallant and meritorious services. Eosecrans 
sent him to Washington to report to the war department the 
exact condition of the army in east Tennessee. About this time 
he was granted a furlough home, and was afflicted in the loss 
of his eldest child. 

Garfield's congressional district had elected him to Congress. 
He had shown so much knowledge and ability in his work in the 
army, that President Lincoln desired him in Congress, and 
urged him to resign his place in the army and enter Congress. 
Garfield was now full of the army and its great work. He had 
mastered the knowledge necessary to the new j^lace, and now 
commanded great influence in it. He had studied in school, 
studied teaching, studied theology, studied law, and was now 
studying military tactics and science with the greatest enthusi- 
asm. In the midst of this came the voices of his home district 



JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD. 46? 

and his president, asking tliat he should go into Congress and 
take np the study of national legislation. In less than two years 
he had attained his high position in the army, because he was 
a thorough student, jiatriot and man. Wherever he was, he was 
always great. And his greatness was so many-sided that people 
had only begun to know him when he was cut down by the bul- 
let of the assassin. 

CONGRESSMAlSr GARFIELD. 

General Garfield went into Congress in December, 1863, 
after three years' service in the army ; and went to Congress to 
begin in earnest a thorough study of political economy — espe- 
cially finance, taxation, commerce, tariff, manufactures and 
international law. His study in Congress was intense, and here 
as elsewhere, he became a master. His powerful frame, massive 
head and manly voice commanded a place for him everywhere. 
In his state he was the youngest senator ; in the army he was 
the youngest general ; now lie was the youngest member in the 
House. But he soon took his place among those most exper- 
ienced and greatest, as their peer. He took high moral and 
patriotic grounds on all questions, and maintained them by 
great speeches. 

In two years he was re-elected to Congress by a heavy 
majority. In the middle of his second term. President Lincoln 
was assassinated. The whole country was shocked and aroused. 
In New York city a great mob took possession of the streets. 
Two men were shot. "To the World, to the World !" cried 
some in the mob, and the surge of the maddened people went 
that way. Just then a strong man mounted some elevation and 
waved a small flag, as though to still the people. ''Another 
telegram from Washington ! " cried out several voices. Every- 
body stopped and listened. The strong man lifted reverently 
his eyes to heaven, and in clear, deep, strong tones, said: '''Fel- 
low citizens, clouds and darkness are around about Him. His 
pavilion are dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. Justice 
and judgment are the habitation of His tiirone. Mercy and 
truth shall go before His face. Fellow citizens, God reigns, and 



468 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

the government at Washington still lives I" "The crowd stood 
riveted to the ground," writes one present, ^"'with awe, gazing 
at the motionless orator and thinking of God and the security 
of the government in that hour." 

The tumult of the people subsided. A mighty voice had 
stilled a mighty passion. General Garfield was the providential 
man who at that moment of danger lifted uj) his voice over the 
storm. It was a stroke of genius. Only a mighty master of 
men and eloquence can do such a thing. It stayed a mob bent 
on murder and fire. 

The great storm of war, the great loss of the president, and 
the great work of reconstruction in the hands of Congress, only 
strengthened his powers for greater service. He studied harder 
than any other member, taking more books out of the congres- 
sional library, mostly on the subjects immediately in hand. He 
rose with the need of each hour, and put on new strength as 
dangers seemed to thicken. He went on in his work of national 
legislator through the administration of Presidents Johnson, 
Grant and Hayes, broadening and enriching his intelligence, 
holding a commanding position in Congress, and educating the 
nation in finance, taxation, commerce and international law, 
till the great republican convention of 1880, at Chicago, put 
him in nomination for the presidency. His great popularity 
made the canvass an ovation of popular affection for him. 

PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 

The nominating convention at Chicago, 'the enthusiastic 
popular canvass, the triumphant election, all indicated that no 
other man in this country had so large a place in the hearts of 
the people as General Garfield. His home at Mentor was a 
republican Mecca ; his way to Washington was a triumphal 
journey; his inauguration was a red-letter day for popular 
government. Here was a great man, a good man, a kingly 
man, in person, mind and heart, who had risen from a cabin 
in the wilderness to the i^residential mansion through all the 
steps of personal struggle and trial, of labor, study, religious 
devotion, patriotic endeavor, and national disciiDline and service. 



JAMES ABEAM GAKFIELD. 469 

to the highest honor the nation conld give ; an(i yet he had kept 
his common-folk simplicity, his humility, frankness, genuine- 
ness, heartiness, without seeming to know that he had come to 
be a great man, or to lose any of the fresh vital love of humanity 
which had always won him the warmest personal friendship. 
With his enthusiasms unabated, his noble ambitions yet pure 
and simple, he went to the office of the president to serve the 
country and promote the well-being of his kind. 

A country that produces such men, that makes it possible 
for every man to rise as he did according to the measure of his 
powers, who will obey the conditions, is a country, the worth of 
which can never be properly estimated. No service rendered to 
men is better given, than that rendered such a country. 

President Garfield's position had its difficulties. His party 
was not at agreement as to methods. There was a " close corpo- 
ration'* so to speak, within the party, which was managed by a 
few party leaders, for the most part honored men, who had lost 
popularity with the other and larger element of the party, who 
thought this "machine" within the party was a corrupting 
thing. It was the president's purpose, if possible, to unite these 
elements in his administration, and at the same time abate the 
prevailing influence of the "machine" methods. There is but 
little doubt that he would have succeeded, had not the bullet of 
the assassin closed his noble career. 

ASSASSINATION". 

On the morning of July 2, 1881, the president had arranged 
to visit New England for a little rest. His wife being at Long 
Branch, and was to meet him at New York. Senator Blaine, 
after breakfast, drove to the White House and took the president 
into his carriage, and took him to the depot. Reaching the 
station nearly half an hour before train time, they sat in the 
carriage till a railroad official told them the train was about to 
start. They left the carriage and went in through the ladies' 
waiting room which was nearly empty. As they were passing 
through the room, arm in arm, a strange, thin, wiry-looking 
man, small and quick, darted up behind them and fired at the 



470 OUR PBESIDENTS. 

back of the president. Eecocking liis pistol, lie fired again in an 
instant. The president sank to the floor. Mr. Blaine sprang 
to the assassin who offered little resistance. The woman in 
charge of the room, ran immediately to the fallen president and 
held up his head. A physician was summoned, a mattress pro- 
vided and he was taken to the White House. His wife was 
summoned and then followed long days of pain and anxiety. 

The country was shocked. Sympathy and sorrow were every- 
where. Indignation at the wretch who, in dastardly conceit of 
personal importance, sought to restore a political faction to 
power, by assassinating the president, made it difficult to keep 
him from the avenging hands of the jDopulace. No Fourth of 
July was ever so mournful in this country. All nations sympa- 
thized with our suffering president, his family and people. 
Early in September he was moved to Long Branch; where he 
lingered till the nineteenth of September, when he died at 10:35 
o'clock P.M., 1881. 

No words can express the sorrow of the j)eople. He was, 
indeed, one of the greatest and noblest of American men. It is 
painful to try to tell the story of so great a life in so short a 
space. 



'WHE ll^RAVE OF ^RESIDENT i;[ARFIELD. 

After the death of President Garfield, at Long Branch, his 
body was taken to Washington and laid in state for two days, 
and then borne to Cleveland and deposited in the Scofield tomb, 
in Lake View cemetery, Mr. Garfield's home had always been 
near Cleveland ; many of his early neighborhood and school 
friends were there; Mentor, his chosen country residence, was but 
one hour's ride by rail from there; some of his strongest political 
friends had helped to build up the Forest City ; he had always 
watched its growth with the greatest interest; so that Cleveland 
\vas more his home than any other city. It was understood 
among his friends that he had contemplated Lake View ceme- 
tery as the final resting place of his mortal remains. 



JAMES ABKAil GARFIELD. 471 

Lake View cemetery is one of the most interesting of the 
many beautiful cemeteries of the country. It is comparatively 
new, and is rapidly growing into a delightful resting place of 
human mortality. It is five and a quarter miles east of the 
center of Cleveland,, on Euclid avenue, one of the finest city 
streets in the Avorld ; three quarters of a mile east of Adelbert 
college and the Case school of applied science ; half a mile 
southeast of Wade Park, on the side of which, next to the cem- 
etery, is reserved a site for another educational institution. 
The city already reaches to within a short distance of the 
cemetery, and will soon enclose it on three sides. The Nickel- 
plate railroad runs along the north side of it. It is already 
in the midst of that life and enterprise in which Mr. Garfield 
felt such an enthusiastic interest. It will soon be in the very 
presence of great educational institutions, such as he had given 
much of his life to promote. Education, business, travel, and 
the homes of the people, are about his resting place. In death, 
as in life, he is in the midst of the world's great interests, which 
he loved. 

Lake Erie is about two and a half miles from the cemetery, 
and is visible from all the high part of it. It is an irregular 
tract of three hundred acres of uneven land — hill and dale — with 
a pleasant stream of water running through it from the south. 
The soil is light and gravelly, and the general aspect of the 
scenery agreeable in every respect. 

The Scofield vault, in which the president's body now reposes, 
is a beautiful Gothic structure of gray sandstone built into the 
slope of an undulating hill, and facing the stream that runs 
through the grounds, which Just here broadens out into a 
little lakelet. 

Four small granite pillars, two dark and two red, on the 
front, support the ornamental work of the roof. 

The tomb is about fifteen feet wide, and about the same 
height and depth. 

The door is some five or six feet wide. The president's casket 
is just inside and across the door, on supports about two feet 
high. It is of bronze, and was sealed at the time his body was 



472 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

put into it, and has not been opened. On it is a large wreath 
of immortelles, and on the side near the bottom are little sheaves 
of wheat and baskets of floAvers. Behind the casket, and over 
it, is arched the American flag. Twelve United States soldiers 
keep guard over it, night and day, taking turns in their watch. 

The casket is to rest here, oj^en to the view of the public 
tlirough the wrought-iron grated gate, which prevents entrance 
till the monument is completed, affording it a perpetual home. 

The Lake View Cemetery Association have contributed a lot 
of two and a half acres, half a mile from the entrance in the 
southwest part of the cemetery, near the May field road. The 
lot is on the highest ground in the cemetery, one hundred and 
thirty feet above the entrance, and affords a fine view of the 
lake, the cemetery, the park and college grounds, as well as the 
country about, and the city towers and spires to the west of it. 
The lot is valued at one hundred thousand dollars. The monu- 
ment is to cost one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Of this 
sum seventy-five thousand have been contributed by friends of 
Mr. Garfield in Cleveland. The rest is the free-will offering of 
friends far and near, much of it in small sums. 

Proposals for designs have been made, which are to be opened 
next May. The monument is to be of granite, and the emblems 
and statuary of bronze. The monument is to have a receptacle 
for the president and a vault for the family. The ground 
is already well along in the process of the grading, and every- 
thing looks as though the monument would be completed in a 
couple of years. When done, it will be one of the finest monu- 
ments in the country, and will be a fitting remembrance of our 
second martyred president. 






ENGRAVED EXPREESSLy FOR VVE'VEb's" LIVES AMD . 




CHAPTER XXII. 



CHESTER ALLAK ARTHUR. 

Twenty-first President op the United States. 



ANCESTRY AND BOYHOOD. 



^EESIDENT ARTHUR, 



(1884) 



the 



^-^^t nj:.njLUj:.iM^ x^xtxxx^x., now {ibm) occupying 
!»" executive chair of the republic, was born in Fairfield, 
^^ Franklin county, Vermont, October 5, 1830, and is in 
g- the fifty-fourth year of his age. He is the only son of 
Jlll^ Vermont who has attained this distinction. Vermont has 
produced many noted men, and has, from the days of the 
revolution, taken an active and efficient part in national affairs; 
has usually been forward and vigorous in the fields of war ; 
strong in Congress; intelligent and high-minded in the conduct 
of her own public affairs; had a hardy and robust people, inde- 
pendent and vigorous in mind and action; staid, order-loving, 
law-abiding and truth-seeking. Their patriotism has been 
intense, and their devotion to the public welfare a strong and 
steady impulse. 

Among such people President Arthur came into being and 
received his early influences and education. The strong climate 
and fine scenery did their part in giving vigor to his body and 
mind, and activity and taste to his imagination. 

His father. Reverend William Arthur, was a Baptist clergy- 
man who came to this country from Ireland when eighteen years 
old. He had had charge of a church in New York city for a 
number of years; had published a work of considerable merit on 

473 



474 OUR PRESIDE]S1TS. 

"Family Names," and had held a good place in the ministry 
of his denomination before his son became much known. He 
died in 1875. 

Chester was the eldest of a family of five children, two sons 
and three daughters. He fitted him"Self for college in the Ver- 
mont academies, which have done and are still doing excellent 
service in educating the youth of that state. At the early age 
of fifteen he entered Union college at Schenectady, New York, 
where he graduated in the class of 1849, when nineteen years 
old. During his college course he partly paid his Avay by 
teaching a part of the time and continuing his studies. After 
his graduation, he returned to Vermont and continued teaching 
for a few years. For a time he was principal of the Pownal 
academy. But while teaching he had begun the study of law. 

ME. ARTHUR THE LAWYER. 

Having saved sufficient money to carry him through his pro- 
fessional studies, he went to New York and entered the office of 
ex-Judge Culver. Having pursued the prescribed course, he 
was admitted to the bar, and concluded to accept Mr. Greeley's 
wholesale advice to the young men of the east to go west, as 
though young men were no longer needed in the east. After a 
wide tour through the west with his young friend, H. D. 
Gardiner, to find the jjlace that needed them and that they 
needed, in which to grow up to fortune and distinction, they 
returned to New York city, convinced that the prophetic gift 
was not theirs to divine the places for the great future cities of 
the west. The western fever cured, the two young men formed 
a partnership, opened an office and began the practice of law at 
the foot of the hill. Little by little their business grew, and 
they grew with it, till in a few years they were well established 
in a lucrative practice. 

When well established in his profession, he married a 
daughter of Lieutenant Herndon, of the United States navy, 
who, with his ship, was lost at sea. His widow was voted a gold 
medal by Congress for his fidelity. Mrs. Arthur died in 1880, 
before his election to the vice-presidency. 



CHESTER ALLAK AETHUR. 475 

In 1852, when slaveholders claimed the right to take and 
hold their slaves wherever they chose to go, a Virginia slave- 
owner, with eight slaves, went to New York on his way to Texas, 
While awaiting the sailing of the vessel on which he was expect- 
ing to go, a writ of habeas corpus was obtained for the slaves, 
and the law took them in charge. Their case was tried before 
Judge Paine, Mr. Arthur and William M. Evarts serving them 
as advocates. It was held by the court that they could not be 
held as bondmen in New York, nor returned as slaves to Vir- 
ginia under the fugitive slave law. They were not fugitives 
from service, but were held by their pretended owner in Ncav 
York without law. They were liberated. The Virginia legis- 
lature sought to recover them, and brought suit in a New York 
court for that purpose. The case was tried and decision given 
for the colored peoj)le. An apjieal was made to the supreme 
court, and the decision of the court below was sustained. The 
case gave Mr. Arthur much notoriety, and won him the friend- 
ship of the colored peojile and their friends, and of the friends 
of humanity, as far as the matter was known. 

Another case of a similar kind is recorded to his credit as a 
man of justice and humanity. A colored girl was ejected from 
a New York street car after she had paid her fare. Mr. Arthur 
brought suit for damages, and recovered five hundred dollars for 
the girl. It brought the whole matter before the public through 
the press, and resulted in reversing the street railroad order 
against passengers of color. 

As a young man, Mr. Arthur was a whig, and a great 
admirer of Henry Clay. His Vermont education, perhaps, had 
something to do with this, as Vermont always stood stoutly for 
that line of political opinions represented by the federalists, 
whigs and republicans. 

MR. ARTHUR THE POLITICIAlSr. 

When the convention met at Saratoga which organized the 
republican party of New York, Mr. Arthur was a delegate. In 
that party he was, therefore, at home, having assisted in forming 
it. Its ideas and purposes were his. Its opposition to the 



476 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

extension of slavery, its disbelief in slavery, its recognition of 
human rights in colored people, its belief in the Union as a per- 
manent national power, under the government of which the 
states exist; its adhesion to a national currency, and its repudia- 
tion of the state rights heresy were all his. On the basis of 
these ideas he has shaped his political life. 

Hence, when the pro-slavery and state rights rebellion broke 
out he was a national government man by j)ersonal affinity and 
political affiliation, and gave his help to save the Union and 
redeem it from the slave curse. He was made judge advocate of 
the second brigade of the state militia. 

The governor of New York, in 1860, appointed Mr. Arthur 
to the position of engineer-in-chief on his staff. He was after- 
ward inspector-general for a time. Later he was quartermaster- 
general of the militia forces of the state to the close of Governor 
Morgan's term of office, in 1863. The work of equipping, sup- 
plying and transporting the immense number of troops sent 
to the army by that state tested his business ability. His 
immense accounts were so systematically kept that they were 
audited and allowed at Washington without deduction, a thing 
not very usual then, in the confusion of putting an immense 
army into the field. His contracts every year reached millions 
of dollars, and yet his accounts were so exact as to show the 
most scrupulous integrity in all his dealings. Personally, he 
profited nothing by his great opportunities to use to his benefit 
a tariff on his trade. He rejected presents ; kept clean hands 
and just accounts, and made a war record for integrity as 
creditable as that of bravery on the field. The bravery of an 
honest conduct of such a great business in one's country's behalf 
is indeed most worthy, and is to be set down as one of the 
morally grand things that grand men do. 

In 1862, in one of the dark hours of the war, when the loyal 
governors had a meeting for counsel, Mr. Arthur was invited to 
sit with them, on account of his great experience in the conduct 
of army matters. Kis record was a very honorable and helpful 
one in the hour of his country's peril. 

After his work in the army was over, Mr. Arthur returned 



CHESTER ALLAN ARTHUR. 477 

to the practice of law, and gained in a few years a large busi- 
ness, a large portion of which was in collecting claims against 
the government. He was interested much both in state and 
national legislation, and drafted many bills in the interest of 
both. He inclined to politics and to associate with politicians, 
and hence took a more or less active part in local politics. He 
had lived long in the city and knew its people and interests and 
was public spirited. He had skill as an organizer and manager 
of local partisan matters. 

In 1871, Mr. Arthur was appointed by President Granf 
collector of customs at the port of New York. So satisfactory 
was his work that he was reappointed four years later. He was 
continued under President Hayes, and in this showed the large 
business qualities previously manifested in army affairs. 

But now came a break in the smooth current of his affairs. 
From early in President Grant's administration his party, having 
come to be powerful, came much under the management of 
party leaders, and some of them not creditable to the party ; 
greedy, selfish men, who were in the party for place and gain. 
By such men were soon formed rings of their kind. In a short 
time these rings came to be managed by single men, these single 
men playing skillfully into each others hands. At Washington, 
at each state capital, in each large city, these rings came to hold 
the party management. They could easily combine, and this 
combination readily constituted a sort of secret conclave to cut 
and dry appointments, measures, and the general conduct of 
state and national affairs. This combination soon came to be a 
machine for working up the jobs of the ringleaders, who came 
to be termed "bosses." President Grant's hail-fellow-well-met 
qualities and natural incompetency for business made him just 
the ruler under which such a system could easily grow up into a 
mighty combination. And under him many of the people came 
to believe such a system had grown up. It was believed by 
many, that after President Hayes was elected. Grant was made 
an unconscious agent of this combination, to travel round the 
world and come home by way of California just in time to 
receive the enthusiastic welcome from his country and be nomi- 



478 OUR PRESIDENTS. 

nated for a third term in the presidency. Many of the people 
came to regard this combination as a most intolerable '^machine/' 
utterly unrepublican and hostile to pure government and the 
people's rule. 

President Hayes sought to head off this growing state of 
things and keep his administration free from any complicity 
with it. So he issued an order against United States officers 
taking any leading part in political canvasses. 

Mr. Arthur was at that time chairman of the republican 
state committee of New York. His natural talent for manage- 
ment and business made him an efficient man in that place, and 
much more the agent of the ring " bosses " probably than he 
realized. He resisted the order of the president, and was 
removed from the collectorship. He had given entire satis- 
faction. His accounts were correct. All was as it should be in 
his office. • But he was in a "ring of politicians"; was a ring- 
master himself, as many people thought ; and this prevalent 
opinion, no doubt, was shared by President Hayes, and he 
sought to clear his administration from its evil influence. 

Mr. Arthur went back to the practice of law, but not con- 
verted to "civil service reform" as practiced by President 
Hayes. He was still at the head of his ring, now wounded and 
resolved on maintaining its position. In due time the next 
presidential election came round, and with it the wandering ex- 
President Grant, according to the prediction of those Avho 
believed he was to be put forward for a third term. The nomi- 
nating convention came, with the whole combination of 
"machine" men, resolved on the third term movement. The 
movement was led by Mr. Roscoe Conkling, of New York, a 
strong and determined man, and an intimate friend of Mr. 
Arthur. The third term movement, though urged with a solid 
combination and great persistency, failed, and Mr. Garfield was 
nominated. Then the winning party in the convention must be 
generous, and Mr. Conkling was given the naming of a man for 
vice-president. He named Chester A. Arthur. 



CHESTER ALLAN ARTHUR. ^'^^ 



VICE-PRESIDENT AND PRESIDENT. 

Mr Arthur took an active part in the canvass, especially in 
his own state, and added much to the well-managed campaign 
which elected Mr. Garfield and himself. 

Mr Arthur presided with acceptance in the special session ot 
the senate which followed. But the election was accomplished 
by a divided party. The "civil service reform" part had 
secured its man for president, who was amiable and conciliatory 
toward the "machine" part of the party, but Mr. Conklmg was 
imperious and unwilling to accept any lessons m civil service 
reform, or yield any of his prerogatives as party chief m JNew 
York President Garfield, in spite of himself, was soon m con- 
flict with the imperious New York senator, who, because he 
could not resist the senate's approval of the president's New 
York appointments, resigned and went home to engineer his 
own re-election. Mr. Arthur also went to Albany to secure, it 
possible, his chief's re-election, who thus put himself m antago^ 
nism with the president. The contest at Albany was a very 
warm one, but the civil service reform sentiment had become 
too strong to be overcome, and Mr. Conkling was permitted to 
remain in private life, to which he had voluntarily betaken 
himself He had been a sort of idol of his party, many of whom 
sorrowed over his wrong-headedness, as they called it. It wa^ a 
needless and willful self-sacrifice, many of his friends thought, 
and made him exceedingly unpopular. He resisted the popular 
will to his own political ruin. , t 

This threw Mr. Arthur into the shadow of popular dis- 
approbation. He had been no more willing to learn wisdom 
from the people than his chief had been. The heat of this 
conflict was not over when a cracked-brained and conceited 
would-be politician assassinated President Garfield, and forced by 
pistol shot the presidency upon Mr. Arthur. A more unfortu- 
nate way of coming to a high office never before occurred to its 
recipient Manv felt that he was unintentionally a participator 
in the crime in his persistent devotion to Mr. Conkling against 
the president. Many more lost confidence in him for his oppo- 



480 



OUE PRESIDEJS'TS. 



sition to civil service reform, and his devotion to the hitherto 
prevailing system of ring politics. Many more lost confidence 
in him on account of his practical rejection of temperance and 
teetotal principles, and allying himself on the side of the great 
and destructive liquor selling and drinking system. All these 
things combined produced a tide of public .sentiment against 
him, greater, perhaps, than any president, except Andrew John- 
son, had had to resist. But his humiliation and grief, and every 
way considerate conduct after the assassination and during the 
long weeks of watching over the wounded president, won upon 
the whole people, and made it possible for him to give the 
country an acceptable presidential service. Yet his service gave 
evidence that he had not received the lesson which the events 
plainly taught till the next election gave his state to the oppo- 
site party by some two hundred thousand majority. It seemed 
to many that he threw away a splendid opportunity to crown 
his life with honor, by his over-devotion to a system of political 
management and personal self-indulgence almost necessarily 
corrupt and corrupting. After that election, his course up to 
the present time (December, 1883), has been far more satisfac- 
tory, and it gives evidence of going on peacefully to its close, 
March 4, 1884; i^ 




CHAPTER XXIII. 



Al^ AE'ALYSIS 



THE AMEEI0A:N' G0YEEI^MEE"T. 




HE original American colonies were separate commiini- 
tieSj living on lands which they held by charter from 
=^ the British Crown, and under governments of their 
own, sanctioned by the Crown. They had no legal rela- 
tions with each other. i t 

September 4, 1774, the First Continental Congress 
met and agreed upon a Bill of Eights, and united action to 
secure their rights under their king. That Congress was 
re-appoiuted from year to year, and constituted the government 
under which the revolution was carried on and independence 
secured. Under that Congress the colonies were erected into 
states. 

This Continental Congress, as early as 1777, began to 
provide for a general government of the United States ; but it 
was not effected until 1781, when the Articles of Confederation 
were adopted. But these were found so inefficient — were so 
without power of enforcement, so subject to the will, or want of 
will of each state, that they proved a rope of sand, and the 
fruits of the revolution would have been lost, had not the people 
unitedly, through their representatives, formed a Constitution 
31 481 



483 AN" ANALYSIS OF 

with wisdom and power to guide them in *'the enjoyment of 
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." 

That constitution may well he the perpetual study of the 
American people who, under its protecting and fostering pro- 
visions, have now increased to over fifty millions, and grown to 
great influence and power. 

A brief analysis of these provisions Avill help to an appreciative 
understanding of their great value. 

THE PREAMBLE. 

"We, the people of the United States, in order to form a 
more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tran- 
quility, provide for the common defense, promote the general 
welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our 
posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution for the 
United States of America." 

How definite, and yet how Comprehensive ! Who ordained 
and established this constitution? *'We, the people." It was 
not ordained and established by the states. That was the way 
the "Articles of Confederation" were adopted. The states 
adopted them one by one. The states elected the Congress that 
made them. They were understood to be a confederation of 
states, and in that was their weakness. Now, the people took 
the matter into their hands, held conventions, and appointed 
delegates to a representative convention of the people of the 
United States to form a constitution "for the United States of 
America." In this preamble, the people gave a name to their 
government, stated its objects, and ordained and established 
it. The people are back of the states and control them and 
hold them to this compact. The states are estopped by "the 
people of the United States" from having anything to say 
about changing, abrogating or seceding from the constitution. 

The first object named was to "form a more perfect union.'' 
The confederation had made a very imperfect union, and it was 
on the point of falling utterly to pieces. It had no authority, 
could enforce no law, collect no taxes, coin no money, punish 
no crimes. These things were all for the states to enforce, and 



THE AMERICAN" GOVERNMEXT. 483 

they could do it or not as tliey chose. Now, under the consti- 
tution, a more perfect and vigorous union — one that should 
have power over all the states to enforce its laws within them, 
was formed. 

The second object was to "establish justice." The states 
might establish justice among their own citizens, but experience 
had proved that tkey would not do it toward those of other 
states and foreign nations. Justice is Avide in its range and 
must embrace all who have relations with us. 

The third object was to "insure domestic tranquility," and 
peace among the states and the citizens of each state. 

The fourth object was to "provide for the common defense." 
Single states might be unable to resist abuses and attacks from 
foreign powers. The government would defend each of its chil- 
dren and marshal all the rest in the defense. 

The fifth object was to " promote the general welfare. " This 
was a wide and generous object, conferring a great power for use- 
fulness, making the government a mighty hand of heli^fulness 
to bear on and up its people to the attainment of a high civil- 
ization. 

The sixth object was to "secure the blessings of liberty to 
ourselves and our posterity." This was a general object involv- 
ing all in one, which has been realized to a greater degree than 
by any other people in the world. G-randly have all the objects 
been realized under this most beneficent of all human govern- 
ments. 

AKTICLE I. 

"Section 1. All legislative powers herein granted shall be 
vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of 
a Senate and House of Representatives." 

This Congress is the law-making power. It was patterned 
after the English Parliament, which our national fathers 
thought was the best pattern in the world. 

The representatives are chosen by the people, for two years ; 
must be not less than twenty-five years old ; "must have been 



484 A]!f AXALYSIS OF 

seven years citizens of tlie United States/' and "be inhabitants 
of the states in which they are chosen." The pay of members 
of Congress is five thousand dollars per year and mileage at 
twenty cents each way to and from Washington. 

The Senate is composed of two senators from each state, 
chosen by the legislature, for six years. A senator must be 
thirty years old, nine years a citizen of the United States, and 
be an inhabitant of the state in which he is chosen. 

The vice-president of the United States is .president of the 
Senate; but the representatives choose their speaker. The 
salary of vice-president is eight thousand dollars jjer year. 

In cases of impeachment, charges are made by the House 
of Eepresentatives ; but the trials are had before the Senate. 

Congress assembles on the first Monday in December of each 
year. 

All bills of revenue must originate in the House of Eepre- 
sentatives ; but the Senate may propose amendments. 

Every bill must have passed both the House and the Senate, 
and receive the approval of the president before it becomes a 
law. If the president objects to it, he returns it to the House 
in which it originated, with his objections. Then if two thirds 
of both Houses approve it, it becomes a law, without the signa- 
ture of the president. 

Congress has power to raise revenues, pay debts, provide for 
the defense and general welfare of the United States, to borrow 
money, to regulate commerce, to establish a uniform rule of nat- 
uralization, to coin money, to fix the standard of weights and 
measures, to provide for the punishment of counterfeiting, to 
establish post-offices and post roads, to encourage science and 
the arts by protecting authors and inventors in their rights, to 
constitute tribunals inferior to the supreme court, to define and 
punish crimes on the high seas, and against the laws of nations, 
to declare war, to raise and support armies, to provide for the 
militia and its use, to exercise exclusive legislation in the Dis- 
trict of Columbia and the territories, and to make all laws 
necessary for carrying these powers into effect. 



THE AMEKICAJS" G0VERN^ME]S:T. 485 

ARTICLE 11. 

*' Section" 1. The executive power shall be vested in a presi- 
dent of the United States of America. He shall hold his office 
during the term of four years, and together with the vice-presi- 
dent, chosen for the same term, be elected as follows : 

" Each state shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature 
thereof may direct, a number of electors equal to the whole num- 
ber of senators and representatives to which the state may be 
entitled in Congress; but no senator or representative, or person 
holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, 
shall be appointed an elector." 

The duties of the president are to execute the laws of the 
United States,^ to command the armies, to make treaties, with 
the advice of the Senate, to appoint ambassadors, consuls, minis- 
ters, judges, and all officers not otherwise provided for. For 
details, see constitution. 

The president's salary is fifty thousand dollars per year. 

ARTICLE III. 

"Section 1. The judicial power of the United States shall 
be vested in one supreme court, and in such inferior courts 
as Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The 
judges, both of the supreme and inferior courts, shall hold their 
offices during good behavior, and shall, at stated times, 
receive for their services, a compensation which shall not be 
diminished during their continuance in office.''' 

The supreme court consists of nine members. There are ten 
circuits in the United States, and a judge in each. There are 
district courts, at least one in each state. There is also a court 
of claims. 

These constitute the three great divisions of the constitu- 
tion — the makers, the executors, and the judges of the law. 
They are so arranged as to be sufficiently independent of each 
other, and yet so related as to work harmoniously together and 
to hold each other in check. 



486 AN ANALYSIS OF THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT. 

The fourth article recognizes the relations of the states to 
the general government, and to each other, and makes provis- 
ions for the territories and new states. Amendments have been 
made from time to time, as they have been found needful. 

This constitution, brief and simple as it is, has proved itself 
the wisest, profoundest and most practical instrument for the 
government of a free and intelligent people that has ever been 
made in this world. Apparently, it has left nothing out, and 
put nothing in that was not needful. It is worthy of the study 
of this great people — of all the people — the frequent and oft- 
repeated study, that they may know by heart the great funda- 
mental law of the nation. It should be their political bible, 
open on their tables always, for personal and family use. It has 
been incorporated into this book, and an analysis of it is given 
in this chapter, to put it into many families, to give it a wide 
reading and study, in connection with the lives of the great men 
who have executed it through the first century of its existence. 
It recognizes all the great principles involved in our government 
and institutions. It is the solid bottom rock on which they are 
all founded. It is simple, yet not weak. It is democratic, yet 
maintains the central power of the whole as a unit, with such 
force and dignity as to make it commanding over all the parts. 
It maintains the rights of the individual and the authority of 
the government with equal ease and force. It is almost a 
divine balance of these- two factions ; and in this consists its 
marvelous excellency. Under it, the states and individuals 
exist with equal freedom and protection — in what may be called 
a depeiident independence. 




THE co:n'stitutio]S!" of the united states. 481 



IhE iONSTITUTION OF THE InITED ItATES. 

We, the people of the United States, in order to form a 
more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, 
provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare 
and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, 
do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States 
of America. 

ARTICLE I. 

Section" 1. All legislative powers herein granted shall be 
vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist 
of a Senate and House of Eepresentatives. 

Sec. 2. The House of Eepresentatives shall be composed of 
members chosen every second year by the people of the several 
states, and the electors in each state shall have the qualifications 
requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State 
Legislature. 

No person shall be a representative, who shall not have 
attained to the age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a 
citizen of the United States, and who shall not when elected, be 
an inhabitant of that state in which he shall be chosen. 

Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among 
the several states which may be included within this union, 
according to their respective numbers, which shall be deter- 
mined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including 
those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians 
not taxed, three fifths of all other persons. The actual enu- 
meration shall be made within three years after the first meet- 
ing of the Congress of the United States, and within every 
subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by 
law direct. The number of representatives shall not exceed one 
for every thirty thousand, but each state shall have at least one 
representative ; and until such enumeration shall be made, the 
state of New Hamj)shire shall be entitled to choose three. 



488 THE CONSTITUTION^ OP 

Massachusetts eiglit, Ehocle Island and Providence plantations 
one, Connecticut five, New York six, New Jersey four, Penn- 
sylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North 
Carolina five. South Carolina five, and Georgia three. When 
vacancies happen in the representation from any state, the 
executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill 
such vacancies. 

The House of Eepresentatives shall choose their speaker and 
other officers : and shall have the sole power of impeachment. 

Sec. 3. The Senate of the United States shall be com- 
posed of two senators from each state, chosen by the Legislature 
thereof for six years, and each senator shall have one vote. 

Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of 
the first election they shall be divided as equally as may be into 
tliree classes. The seats of the senators of the first class shall 
be vacated at the expiration of the second year ; of the second 
class at the expiration of the fourth year, and of the third class 
at the expiration of the sixth year, so that one third may be 
chosen every second year ; and if vacancies happen, by resigna- 
tion or otherwise, during the recess of the Legislature of any 
state, the executive thereof may make temporary appointments 
until the next meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill 
such vacancies. 

No person shall be a senator who shall not have attained to 
the age of thirty years and been nine years a citizen of the 
United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhab- 
itant of that state for which he shall be chosen. 

The vice-president of the United States shall be president of 
the Senate, but shall have no vote unless they be equally divided. 

The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a pres- 
ident pro tempore, in the absence of the vice-president, or when 
he shall exercise the office of president of the United States. 

The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeach- 
ments. When sitting for that pur|)ose they shall be on oath or 
affirmation. 

When the president of the United States is tried, the chief 
justice shall preside, and no person shall be convicted without 



THE UNITED STATES. 489 

the concurrence of two thirds of the members present. Judg- 
ment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to 
removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any 
office of honor, trust or profit under the United States, but the 
party convicted shall, nevertheless, be liable and subject to 
indictment, trial, judgment and punishment, according to law. 

Sec. 4. The times, places and manner of holding elections 
for senators and representatives shall be prescribed in each 
state by the Legislature thereof, but the Congress may at any 
time, by law, make or alter such regulations, except as to 
the places of choosing senators. 

The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and 
such meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless 
they shall by laAv appoint a different day. 

Sec. 5. Each House shall be the judge of the elections, 
returns and qualifications of its own members, and a majority 
of each shall constitute a quorum to do business ; but a smaller 
number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized 
to compel the attendance of absent members, in such manner 
and under such penalties as each House may provide. 

Each House may determine the rules of its proceedings, 
punish its members for disorderly behavior, and with the con- 
currence of two thirds, expel a member. Each House shall 
keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time to time publish 
the same, excepting such parts as may in their judgment require 
secrecy ; and the yeas and nays of the members of either House 
on any question shall, at the desire of one fifth of those present, 
be entered on the journal. 

Neither House during the session of Congress shall, without 
the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor 
to any other place than that in which the two Houses shall be 
sitting. 

Sec. 6. The senators and representatives shall receive a 
compensation for their services, to be ascertained by law, and 
paid out of the Treasury of the United States. They shall, in 
all cases except treason, felony and breach of the peace, be priv- 
ileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of their 



490 THE CONSTITUTION^ OF 

rcsi^ective Houses, and in going to and returning from tlie 
same ; and for any speech or debate in either House, they shall 
not be questioned in any other place. 

No senator or rejDresentative shall, during the time for which 
he was elected, be apj)ointed to any civil office under the 
authority of the United States, which shall have been created, 
or the emoluments whereof shall have been increased during 
such time; and no person holding any office under the United 
States, shall be a member of either House during his continuance 
in office. 

Sec. 7. All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the 
House of Eepresentatives ; but the Senate may propose or 
concur with amendments, as on other bills. Every bill which 
shall have passed the House of Eepresentatives and the Senate, 
shall, before it becomes a law, be presented to the President of 
the United States. If he approve, he shall sign it, but if not, 
he shall return it, with his objections to that House in which it 
shall have originated, who shall enter the objections at large on 
their journal, and proceed to reconsider it. It, after such recon- 
sideration, two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the bill, 
it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other House, 
by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by 
two thirds of that House, it shall become a law. But in all 
such cases the votes of both Houses shall be determined by 
yeas and nays, and the names of the persons voting for and 
against the bill shall be entered on the journal of each House 
respectively. If any bill shall not be returned by the President 
within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been pre- 
sented to him, the same shall be a law, in like manner as if he 
had signed it, unless the Congress by their adjournment prevent 
its return, in which case it shall not be a law. 

Every order, resolution or vote to which the concurrence of 
the Senate and House of Eepresentatives may be necessary (except 
on a question of adjournment) shall be presented to the Presi- 
dent of the United States ; and before the same shall take 
effect, shall be approved by him, or being disapproved by him, 
shall be repassed by two thirds of the Senate and House of 



THE UNITED STATES. 491 

Representatives, according to the rules and limitations pre- 
scribed in the case of a bill. 

Sec. 8. The Congress shall have power to lay and collect 
taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for 
the common defense and general welfare of the United States ; 
but all duties, imj)0sts and excises shall be uniform throughout 
the United States ; 

To borrow money on the credit of the United States; 

To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the 
several states, and with the Indian tribes; 

To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform 
laws on the subject of bankrujDtcies throughout the United 
States; 

To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign 
coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures; 

To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securi- 
ties and current coin of the United States; 

To establish post-offices and post roads; 

To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by secur- 
ing for limited times to authors and inventors, the exclusive 
right to their respective writings and discoveries; 

To constitute tribunals inferior to the supreme court; 

To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the 
liigh seas, and offenses against the law of nations; 

To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and 
make rules concerning captures on land and water; 

To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money 
to that use shall be for a longer term than two years; 

To provide and maintain a navy; 

To make rules for the government and regulation of the land 
and naval forces; 

To provide for calling forth the militia, to execute the laws 
of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions; 

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the 
militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed 
in the service of the United States, reserving to the states 
respectively the appointment of the officers, and the authority 



4'J2 THE CONSTITUTION OF 

of training the militia, according to the discij)line prescribed by 
Congress; 

To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over 
such district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession 
of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the 
seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise 
like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the 
legislature of the state in which the same shall be, for the erec- 
tion of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards and other needful 
buildings. 

And to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for 
carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other 
powers vested by this constitution, in the government of the 
United States, or in any department, or office thereof. 

Sec. 9. The migration or importation of such persons as 
any of the states now existing shall think projier to admit, shall 
not be j)rohibited by the Congress, prior to the year one thou- 
sand eight hundred and eight, but a tax or duty may be imposed 
on such importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each person. 

The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, shall not be sus- 
pended, unless where in cases of rebellion or invasion the pub- 
lic safety may require it. 

No bill of attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed. 

No capitation or other direct tax shall be laid unless in pro- 
l^ortion to the census or enumeration herein before directed to be 
taken. 

No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any 
state. 

No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce 
or revenue to the ports of one state over those of another ; nor shall 
vessels bound to or from one state be obliged to enter, clear or 
pay duties in another. 

No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in conse- 
quence of appropriations made by law, and a regular statement 
and account of the receipts and expenditures of ail public 
money shall be published from time to time. 

No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States ; 



THE UNITED STATES. 493 

and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them, 
shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, 
emolument, office or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, 
prince, or foreign state. 

Sec. 10. No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance or 
confederation, grant letters of marque and reprisal, coin money, 
emit bills of credit, make anything but gold and silver coin a 
tender in payment of debts, pass any bill of attainder, ex post 
facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts, or grant 
any title of nobilit3\ 

No state shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay any 
imposts or duties on imports or exports, except what may be 
absolutely necessary for executing its inspection laws ; and the 
net produce of all duties and imports, laid by any state on im- 
j^orts or exports, shall be for the use of the treasury of the 
United States ; and all such laws shall be subject to the revision 
and control of the Congress. 

No state shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any duty 
of tonnage, keep troops, or ships of war in time of ]3eace, enter 
into any agreement or compact Avith another state, or with a 
foreign power, or engage in war, unless actually invaded, or in 
such imminent danger as will not admit of delay. 

ARTICLE II. 

Section 1. The executive power shall be vested in a presi- 
dent of the United States of America. He shall hold his office 
during a term of four years, and, together with the vice-presi- 
dent, chosen for the same term, be elected as follows : Each 
state shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature thereof 
may direct, a number of electors equal to the whole number of 
senators and representatives to which the state may be entitled 
in the Congress : but no senator or representative or person 
holding an office of trust or profit under the United States shall 
be appointed an elector. 

The Congress may determine the time of choosing the 
electors, and the day on whicli they shall give their votes, 
which day shall be the same throughout the United States. 



494 THE CONSTITUTIOISr OF 

No person, except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the 
United States at the time of the adoption of this constitution, 
shall be eligible to the office of president ; neither shall any 
person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to 
the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident 
within the United States. 

In case of the removal of the president from office, or of his 
death, resignation or inability to discharge the powers and 
duties of the said office, the same shall devolve on the vice-presi- 
dent, and the Congress may by law provide for the case of 
removal, death, resignation, or inability, both of the president 
and vice-president, declaring what officer shall then act as 
jDresident, and such officer shall act accordingly, until the disa- 
bility be removed, or a president shall be elected. 

The president shall, at stated times, receive for his services 
a compensation, Avhich shall neither be increased nor diminished 
during the period for which he shall have been elected, and he 
shall not receive within that period any other emolument from 
the United States, or any of them. 

Before lie enter on the execution of his office, he shall take 
the following oath or affirmation: "I do solemnly swear (or 
affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of president of 
the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, 
protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." 

Sec. 2. The president shall be commander in chief of the 
army and navy of the United States, and of the militia of the 
several states, when called into the actual service of the United 
States ; he may require the opinion in writing, of the principal 
officer in each of the executive departments upon ^iny subject 
relating to the duties of their respective offices, and he shall 
have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against 
the United States, except in cases of impeachment. 

He shall have joower, by and with the advice and consent of 
the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the senators 
present concur ; and he shall nominate, and by and with the 
advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, 
other public ministers and consuls, judges of the supreme court. 



THE UNITED STATES. 495 

and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments 
are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be estab- 
lished by law ; but the Congress may by law vest the appoint- 
ment of such inferior officers, as they think proper in the 
president alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of 
departments. 

The president shall have power to fill up all vacancies that 
may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting com- 
missions which shall expire at the end of their next session. 

Sec. 3. He shall from time to time give to the Congress 
information of the states of the Union, and recommend to their 
consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and 
expedient ; he may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both 
Houses, or either of them, and in case of disagreement between 
them with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn 
them to such time as he may think proper ; he shall receive 
ambassadors and other public ministers ; he shall take care that 
the laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the 
officers of the United States. ^ 

Sec. 4. The president, vice-president, and all civil officers 
of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeach- 
ment for, and conviction of treason, bribery, or other high 
crimes and misdemeanors. 

ARTICLE III. 

Section" 1. The judicial power of the United States shall 
be vested in one supreme court, and in such inferior courts as 
the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The 
judges, both of the supreme and inferior courts, shall hold their 
offices during good behavior, and shall, at stated times, receive 
for their services a compensation which shall not be diminished 
during their continuance in office. 

Sec. 2. The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in law 
and equity, arising under this constitution, the laws of th>^ 
United States and treaties made, or which shall be made, under 
their authority; to all cases affecting ambassadors, other public 
ministers and consuls; to all cases of admiralty and maritime 



496 THE CONSTITUTIOlSr OF 

jurisdiction; to controversies to which the United States shall be 
a party; to controversies between two or more states; between a 
state and citizens of another state; between citizens of different 
states ; between citizens of the same state claiming lands under 
grants of different states, and between a state, or the citizens 
thereof, and foreign states, citizens or subjects. 

In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and 
consuls, and those in which a state &\wM be party, the supreme 
court shall have original jurisdiction. In all other cases before 
mentioned the supreme court shall have appellate jurisdiction, 
both as to law and. fact, with such exceptions and under such 
regulations as the Congress shall make. 

The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, 
shall be by jury, and such trial shall be held in the state where 
the said crimes shall have been committed, but when not com- 
mitted within any state the trial shall be at such place or places 
as the Congress may by law have directed. 

Sec. 3. Treason against the United States shall consist only 
in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, 
giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of 
treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same 
overt act, or on confession in open court. 

The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of 
treason, but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of 
blood or forfeiture except during the life of the person attained. 

AETICLE IV. 

Section" 1. Full faith and credit shall be given in each 
state to the public acts, records and judicial proceedings of every 
other state, and the Congress may, by general laws, prescribe 
the manner in which such acts, records and proceedings shall be 
proved, and the effect thereof. 

Sec. 2. The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all 
privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states. 

A person charged in any state with treason, felony or other 
crime, who shall flee from justice, and be found in another 
state, shall, on demand of the executive authority of the state 



THE UJS'ITED STATES. 497 

from which he fled, be delivered up to be removed to the state 
having jurisdiction of the crime. 

No person held to service or labor in one state, under the 
laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any 
law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or 
labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom 
such service or labor may be due. 

Sec. 3. New states may be admitted by the Congress into 
this Union ; but no new state shall be formed or erected within 
the jurisdiction of any other state ; nor any state be formed by 
the junction of two or more states, or parts of states, without 
the consent of the Legislatures of the states concerned as well as 
of the Congress. 

The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all 
needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other 
property belonging to the United States ; and nothing in this 
constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of 
the United States, or of any particular state. 

Sec. 4. The United States shall guarantee to every state in 
this Union a republican form of government, and shall protect each 
of them against invasion ; and on application of the Legislature, 
or of the executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened), 
against domestic violence. 

ARTICLE V. 

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall 
deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this constitu- 
tion, or, on the application of the Legislatures of two thirds of 
the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amend- 
ments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and 
purposes, as part of this constitution, when ratified by the 
Legislatures of three fourths of the several states, or by conven- 
tions in tJiree fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of 
ratification may be proposed by the Congress ; provided that 
no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thou- 
sand eight hundred and eight, shall in any manner affect the 
first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; 



498 THE CON-STITUTIOX OF 

and that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its 
equal suffrage in the Senate. 

ARTICLE VI. 

All debts contracted and engagements entered into, before 
the adoption of this constitution, shall be as valid against the 
United States under this constitution, as under the con- 
federation. 

This constitution, and the laws of the United States, which 
shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or 
which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, 
shall be the supreme law of the land ; and the judges in every 
state shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution or 
laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding. 

The senators and representatives before mentioned, and the 
members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and 
Judicial officers, both of the United States and the several states, 
shall be bound by oath or affirmation to support this constitu- 
tion ; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualifica- 
tion to any office or public trust under the United States. 

AETICLE VII. 

The ratification of the conventions of nine states shall be 
sufficient for the establishment of this constitution between the 
states so ratifying the same. 

Done in convention by the unanimous consent of the states 
present, the seventeenth day of September, in the year of our 
Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, and of the 
independence of the United States of America the twelfth. 

In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names. 

GeOKGE AYASHIJSTGTOISr, 

President and Deputy from Virginia. 

Netv Hamjjsliire. 
JoH]s" Langdon. Nicholas Oilman. 

Massachusetts. 
Natha]S"iel Gorham. Eufus King. 



THE UNITED STATES. 499 

Connect ictit. 
William Samuel Johnso^st. Eoger Sherman. 
Neio York. 
Alexander Hamilton. 
JV^ew Jersey. 
William Livingston. William Paterson. 

David Brearley. Jona Dayton. 

Pennsylva7iia. 
Benjamin Franklin. Thomas Fitzsimons. 

Thomas Mifflin. Jared Ingersoll. 

Egbert Morris. James Wilson. 

George Clymer. Governeur Morris. 

Delaware. 
George Eead. Eichard Bassett. 

Gunning Bedford, Jr. Jacob Broom. 

John Dickinson. 
Maryland. 
James McHenry. Daniel Carroll. 

Dan of St. Thomas Jenifer. 
Virginia. 
John Blair. James Madison, Jr. 

Nortli Carolina. 
William Blount. Hugh Williamson. 

Eichard Dobbs Spraight. 
Soutli Carolina. 
J. Eutledge. Charles Pinckney. 

Chas. Cotesworth Pinckney. Pierce Butler. 

Georgia. 
William Few. Abraham Baldwin. 

{Attest.) William Jackson, Secretary. 



500 THE CONSTITUTION OF 



ARTICLES IN" ADDITION TO AND AMENDMENT OF THE CONSTITU- 
TION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, PROPOSED 
BY CONGRESS, AND RATIFIED BY THE LEGISLATURES OF 
THE SEVERAL STATES, PURSUANT TO THE FIFTH ARTI- 
CLE OF THE ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 

AETICLE I. 

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of 
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging 
the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the peo- 
ple, peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a 
redress of grievances. 

ARTICLE II. 

A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a 
free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall 
not be infringed. 

AETICLE III. 

No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house 
without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a 
manner to be prescribed by law. 

ARTICLE IV. 

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, 
papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, 
shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon 
probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particu- 
larly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or 
things to be seized. 

ARTICLE V. 

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or other infa- 
mous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand 
jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in tho 



THE UNITED STATES. 501 

militia^ when in actual service in time of war or public danger; 
nor shall any jDerson be subject, for the same offense to be twice 
put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any 
criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of 
life, liberty or property, without due process of law; nor shall 
private property be taken for public use, without just compen- 
sation. 

AETICLE VI. 

In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the 
right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the 
state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, 
which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, 
and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; 
to be confronted with the witnesses against him ; to have com- 
pulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have 
the assistance of counsel for his defense. 

AETICLE VII. 

In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall 
exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be pre- 
served, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-examined 
in any court of the United States than according to the rules of 
the common law. 

ARTICLE VIII. 

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines 
imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. 

AETICLE IX. 

The enumeration in the constitution of certain rights shall 
not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the 
people. 

ARTICLE X. 

The powers not delegated to the United States by the consti- 
tution, nor prohibited bv it to the states, are reserved to the 
states respectively, or to the people. 



502 THE COXSTITUTIOlSr OF 

ARTICLE XL 

The judicial power of the United States shall not be con- 
strued to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or 
prosecuted against one of the United States by citizens of 
another state, or by citizens or subjects of any foreign state. 

AETICLE XIL 

The electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by 
ballot for president and vice-president, one of whom, at least, 
shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; 
they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as president, 
and in distinct ballots the person voted for as vice-j)resident, 
and they shall make distinct lists of all |)ersons voted for as 
president, and of all persons voted for as vice-president, and of 
the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and 
certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the 
United States, directed to the president of the Senate. The 
president of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and 
House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes 
shall tlien be counted. The j)erson luiving the greatest number 
of votes for president, shall be the president, if such number be 
a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if no 
person have such majority, then from the persons having the 
highest numbers, not exceeding three on the list of those voted 
for as president, the House of Representatives shall choose imme- 
diately, by ballot, the president. But in choosing the president, 
thf" vote shall be taken by states, the representation from each 
state having one vote ; a quorum for this purpose shall consist 
of a member or members from two thirds of the states, and a 
majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. And if 
the House of Representatives shall not choose a president, when- 
ever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the 
fourth day of March next following, then the vice-president 
shall act as president, as in the case of death, or other constitu- 
tional disability of the jiresident. The person having the greatest 
number of votes as vice-president, shall be vice-president, if such 



THE UNITED STATES. 603 

number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed, 
and if no person have a majoritj^, then from the two highest 
numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the vice-president; 
a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two thirds of the 
whole number of senators, and a majority of the whole number 
shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally 
ineligible to the office of president shall be eligible to that of 
vice-president of the United States. 

ARTICLE XIII. 

Section" 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except 
as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been 
duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place 
subject to its jurisdiction. 

Sec. 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by 
appropriate legislation. 

ARTICLE XIV. 

Section 1. All joersons born or naturalized in the United 
States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the 
United States and of the state wherein they reside. 

No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge 
the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; 
nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty or property 
without due process of law ; nor deny to any person within its 
jurisdiction the equal protection of its laws. 

Sec. 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the 
states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole 
number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. 
But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of 
electors for president and vice-president of the United States, 
representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers 
of the state, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied 
to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one 
years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way 
abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime. 




504 THE CONSTITUTIO]Sr OF THE UNITED STATES. - . 

the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the 
proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear 
to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age 
in such state. 

Sec. 3. No person shall be a senator or representative in 
Congress, or elector of president or vice-president, or hold any 
office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any 
state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of 
Congress, or an officer of the United States, or a member of 
any state Legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of 
any state, to sup]3ort the Constitution of the United States, 
shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, 
or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress 
may, by a vote of two thirds of each House, remove such 
disability. 

Sec. 4. The validity of the public debt of the United 
States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for pay- 
ment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insur- 
rection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the 
United States, nor any state shall assume or pay any debt or 
obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against 
the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of 
any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be 
held illegal and void. 

Sec. 5. Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate 
legislation, the provisions of this article. 

ARTICLE XV. 

Section 1. The right of the citizens of the United States 
to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or 
by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of 
servitude. 

Sec. 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this 
article by appropriate legislation. 



